Electronic Contracts

[Perry E. Metzger]

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