[NA]non-wet signatures[NA]

Let'sgoflying!

Let'sgoflying!

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Dave Taylor
What exactly is acceptable as a digital or electronic signature?
How do we know it is a correctly executed document; what must be present?

I am getting documents that typically have a wet signature, now everyone is in a hurry and can't find a pen so they are just printing out the document and in the same font & spacing as the document text, I get a doctor's name typed. Just like this:

Doc I. M. Lazy

Does the acceptability of a signature depend on what the regulatory body involved deems proper?
 
What’s the use case?

DOD has a standard for acceptable digital signature.
 
I scanned my signature and created custom stamp in Acrobat Pro...easy peasy...any PDF that can be returned digitally gets that stamp and you can't tell if I signed wet and scanned or did it with digital stamp.

What is acceptable is totally up to the entity receiving he document.
 
As long as Doc I.M. Lazy is aware of the fact that his "signature" is being used in that format it would be legal. I used to sell automated signature signing devices years ago. People would always ask me if I could sign checks and the answer would be no. The signature itself would be real, signed by a plotter with a real pen but the owner of the signature would be unaware of the use and would therefore be deemed a forgery. That was a fun job though. You wouldn't believe the types of things we would set up to be signed... lol
 
We use electronic signatures on pleadings all the time in the legal field. Virtually everything we file contains a signature line for the attorney with "/s/ [name]."
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
What exactly is acceptable as a digital or electronic signature?
How do we know it is a correctly executed document; what must be present?

I am getting documents that typically have a wet signature, now everyone is in a hurry and can't find a pen so they are just printing out the document and in the same font & spacing as the document text, I get a doctor's name typed. Just like this:

Doc I. M. Lazy

Does the acceptability of a signature depend on what the regulatory body involved deems proper?
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How important is integrity and non-repudiation to you? I.e. knowing the signature belongs the real person and isn't fraudulent, and doesn't allow the person to deny they signed it? There are technologies to do that, and they are integrated into Adobe Acrobat, MS Office, and probably plenty of other apps. How stringent you want it to be depends on the risk you can tolerate if the signature is bad.
 
The only place that does not accept my electronic digital signature (adobe) is the airplane insurance company. I’ve used it for real estate, banking, car insurance, pretty much everything that requires signature. I scanned my signature years ago and still use it on occasion.

I’ve worked with DOD docs that have 12+ digital signatures and it takes forever to open. Each sig requires a separate request to the server.

I know a couple Dr that have a rubber stamp made of their signature for prescriptions.
 
I talked to the regulatory agency involved. They had no clue so they referred me to another regulatory agency. Any guesses how this is going to turn out, lol?
 
steingar said:
I always thought it was funny that my illegibly scribbled signature was so important to so many people.
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Seriously...I could be in a court of law and have a judge ask me "is that your signature"...and I would be "I dunno [shrug], could be my scribble"

Off on a tangent but my favorite thing to do now when you have to digitally sign the credit card reader box at store checkouts is to draw smily faces, mickey mouse, or other pictures especially if I know it it will pop up on the cashier's screen just to make a point of how pointless that process now is.
 
Every attorney I know requires a "wet" signature from their clients because it's hard to screw someone without proper lubrication.

:)
 
There are two types of "electronic signatures." There are the scanned handwritten signatures that one would paste in to an Acrobat document so it looks like what one would see in a wet signed document. I use a scanned image of my executed PE stamp for technical documents.

Then there are the services, such as Docusign, that employ electronic verification procedures to verify that you are who you say you are. Are they infallable? I doubt it. But anybody that has seen my own wet signed signature can replicate it by sneezing with a pen in their hand.
 
There are state laws and a federal law that defines what is a legal electronic signature. Federal act is the Electronic Records and Signatures in Global and National Commerce, 15 USC §7001, et seq.
 
Shawn said:
Off on a tangent but my favorite thing to do now when you have to digitally sign the credit card reader box at store checkouts is to draw smily faces, mickey mouse, or other pictures especially if I know it it will pop up on the cashier's screen just to make a point of how pointless that process now is.
Click to expand...

I’ve signed using names like Idi Amin, Count Baise, Millard Filmore...
 
The first thing I do when I receive a solicitation for donation to alumni associations or charities is check for a "wet" signature, see if that signature smudges. There have been studies done that show there is a definitive increase in donations when the solicitation letters are actually signed by someone. That's what our machines did, signed hundreds of letters a day with actual "pens". They were then sent out to upper level contributors. We had one University that came back to us with a problem they had from a donor. Said donor saved the solicitation letter from multiple mailings and realized that the signatures were exactly the same. So we began getting 12 different signatures from the organization, scanned them in, and rotated them on the plotter. So there was only a 1 in 12 chance that the same person would receive the same exact signature they received before. Worked quite well and we were able to up-charge for this service moving forward. lol We used to do most of the space shuttle crew photos, they were cool.
 
Shawn said:
Seriously...I could be in a court of law and have a judge ask me "is that your signature"...and I would be "I dunno [shrug], could be my scribble"

Off on a tangent but my favorite thing to do now when you have to digitally sign the credit card reader box at store checkouts is to draw smily faces, mickey mouse, or other pictures especially if I know it it will pop up on the cashier's screen just to make a point of how pointless that process now is.
Click to expand...
The sig is pointless, but there is usually a camera recording you scribbling, which is really all they want.
 
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