Stanton McCandlish says:
Regarding "test cases" for digital signatures, not sure if this is 100% relevant but what the hell...
In this area at least, when the UPS folk bring you a package that you must sign for, you no longer sign on paper, but on this funky electronic tablet. Now granted this thing is recording your "real" signature, and thus differs greatly, but still there may be something to this. Not sure where one would look for material having to do with such devices, and their relevance to a court case, but then again no one pays me legal consulting fees either. >:)
Caveat: I'm not a lawyer. In common law, anything you want and intend to be your signature is your signature. Ever work for a very big company? Ever look at your paychecks? They are rubber stamped with someone's signature, not signed. Still, thats perfectly legal. In contract law, contracts do not have to be written -- being written just means that the court has a presumption that the terms of the contract were as written. However, you can make contracts orally if you wish, and they are enforceable provided you can convince a court that the contract really was made. Assuming that you sign a contract with digital signatures, and the court can be made to understand that the digital signatures mean no forgery was possible, its likely a court would enforce them because the court would then have reason to believe that both parties agreed to the contract in question. Repeating my caveat: I'm not a lawyer. Perry