'The physical act of signing a document has always held a certain magical significance. The signatures of fifty-six men sparked the American Revolution and the creation of the United States. We are taught in law school the importance of a signature and the legal ramifications of one’s mark on a document. However, today’s digital world forces the law to accept a new Electronic Revolution. The necessity of electronic business transactions has subsequently prompted a change in the fundamental way the law recognizes the act of signing a document. The Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act, 15 U.S.C. § 7001, redefines a traditional signature as:
(a) In general
Notwithstanding any statute, regulation, or other rule of law (other than this subchapter and subchapter II of this chapter), with respect to any transaction in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce-
(1) a signature, contract, or other record relating to such transaction may not be denied legal effect, validity, or enforceability solely because it is in electronic form; and
(2) a contract relating to such transaction may not be denied legal effect, validity, or enforceability solely because an electronic signature or electronic record was used in its formation.
Contracts are now signed electronically, emails are frequently used for communication between counsel and clients, pleadings in federal court are even electronically signed and filed. Obviously, such a paradigm shift is necessary in the modern era and makes today’s world work, from ATM and credit card purchases to purchasing automobile insurance online. From a legal perspective, however, there are many different forms of electronic signatures. The term is used interchangeably to describe three very distinct means of signing a document electronically:
1. Signature Stamp (or scanned version of a signature)
2. Electronic Signature (used in the federal court system)
3. Digital Signature (encryption used to authenticate a document).
This article explains the three forms of electronic signatures and assist in their creation.
Signature Stamp
Many lawyers have a strong desire to actually have their signature on their PDF documents and will go to great lengths to do so. This of course entails printing your document, signing it, scanning the document back into your computer and then filing it. The problem with this method is that it creates very large documents that easily exceed the 2 MB file size limitation imposed by the Electronic Case Filing (ECF) system. A Signature Stamp solves this dilemma.
A signature stamp is perhaps the most recognizable of the three forms of electronic signatures in that it most closely resembles an analog signature. It is nothing more than an electronic version of a rubber stamp with your signature. The process to create such a stamp is quite simple, requiring only a pen, paper and a scanner. A video tutorial is available online.
These simple steps walk you through creating your very own Signature Stamp using Microsoft Word:
• Sign a piece of paper using a blue gel ink pen for best results. Don’t be overly critical of how the signature looks at this point; it will look better once you scale it down to size.
• Scan the signed paper using a resolution of 600 dpi or more and save the file as a TIFF.
These settings should be available on your scanner/copier. Whether you would like your signature to be in color or black and white is a matter of personal preference.
• Open the TIFF in Windows Image Viewer or your image editing program of choice and crop the page to include only your signature. Save the resulting signature as a TIFF.(NOTE: If you are techno-savvy, better results can be obtained by opening the PDF in an image-editing program such as Photos hop and removing the white background from the signature then saving it in TIFF format.)
• Open a document in Microsoft Word and select ‘Insert’ from the menu bar. Choose ‘Picture’, then ‘From File’ and select the location on your computer where you stored your signature. Once you’ve inserted your signature, the Picture Toolbar will be opened.
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Click on the Text Wrap Tool icon in the Picture Toolbar. Select ‘In Front of Text’. This will place your signature over any of the underlying text so that it looks like a real signature.
• You will need to make the signature transparent by selecting the ‘Set Transparent’ button in your Picture Toolbar. With this tool selected, click on any of the white area surrounding your signature. This will allow text behind your signature to appear ‘through’ the image and make it appear more realistic.
• Move your signature to your signature line and resize it by selecting the box around the image and dragging it to the size you prefer. (Select one of the corners of the signature and drag to keep the signature in proportion.)
• Finally, save your document as a PDF. If you have Adobe Acrobat installed on your computer, you should have an icon in your Microsoft Word toolbar to create a PDF from the open document. (Should you not have Adobe Acrobat, there is a free alternative called doPDF that will install a virtual printer on your system allowing you to print the PDF.)
You now have a signature stamp that you may place in any document or PDF of your choice. Only the last three steps have to be replicated for future use and can even be automated using a macro. Unfortunately, this signature is not the Electronic Signature required by the ECF system though it can be used in conjunction with it.
Electronic Signature
The Electronic Signature required by the ECF system is perhaps the easiest to create of the three signatures dis cussed in this article. For purposes of E-Filing documents into the ECF system, the only requirement is the placement of “/s/ [Attorney Name]” on the signature line of the pleading that matches the name of the attorney logged on to the ECF system.
What many attorneys fail to understand about ECF filing is that the attorney’s ECF login is actually his/her signature for legal purposes, not merely the presence of “/s/”. The attorney’s name which follows the /s/ is simply an identifier of the attorney filing the pleading and, there fore, must be the lawyer whose ECF login is used to file the document. Thus, logging in under one attorney’s ECF login and signing the pleading using another attorney’s name will cause you to be contacted by the ECF Clerk instructing you to resubmit the document.
For those attorneys seeking their actual signature on the federal pleading, it is acceptable to place your signature stamp above the electronic signature, thereby retaining the “look” of non-electronic pleadings and conforming to the electronic signature requirements.
Digital Signature
The creation of a digital signature is more complicated than a signature stamp or electronic signature. A true digital signature is actually an electronic, cryptographic-based, secure stamp of authentication. A digital signature supplies a verifiable signature that can vouch for the authenticity and integrity of a file. Readers of your document can be assured of the document creator’s identity and that the document has not been altered by a third party. This is especially useful to reassure a reader who receives electronic documents such as contracts and release agreements were created by you and have not been altered or otherwise tampered with in any way.
There are two methods of creating your own digital signature: a self-signed digital signature and a third-party digital signature. A third-party digital signature can be obtained from third-party companies such as VeriSign and are outside the scope of this article; however, a self-signed digital signature can now be created from within Word 2007 quite easily. Unfortunately, it is a more complex task to create self-signed digital signatures in Word 2003, and it is therefore not within the scope of this article.
• Open the document you would like to digitally sign. Click on the Office button, then select “Prepare,” then click “Add a digital signature.” You will be given the option to “Create your own Digital ID” if you haven’t already created one.
• A dialog box opens asking you what information you would like to appear in your digital signature. This can be as simple as your name and as complex as including email addresses, law firm and addresses.
Once your digital signature has been created, it is simply a matter of clicking the Office button, selecting “Prepare” and “Add a digital signature” to insert your newly created signature. If you have purchased a third- party digital signature, you will also have the option of selecting that signature from this list.
Looking back at these three types of electronic signatures, we can see that, while they may not have the customary look and feel of a signature, electronic sugnatures can provide assurances of authenticity difficult to replicate using a customary analog signature. Based upon the guidelines of the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act, all three forms described in this article are acceptable means of a digital signature. Obviously, which one you should use will vary in each situation. However, being able to recognize your options and use these new forms of authentication will allow you to move forward in the digital age and join the Electronic Revolution.