[2052] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: Legality of faxed signatures.
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Michael Froomkin - U.Miami School )
Fri Jan 16 17:39:01 1998
Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 14:51:49 -0500 (EST)
From: "Michael Froomkin - U.Miami School of Law" <froomkin@law.miami.edu>
Reply-To: "Michael Froomkin - U.Miami School of Law" <froomkin@law.miami.edu>
To: "James A. Donald" <jamesd@echeque.com>
cc: cryptography@c2.net
In-Reply-To: <199801161838.KAA06550@proxy3.ba.best.com>
You neglected to specify the country or jurisdiction for which you are
asking. It might make a difference.
It's safe to say that for US law in every state with which I'm familiar
(and I am NOT familiar with them all), for the majority of contracts of
sale that do not deal with special matters, of which sale of land is the
most common example, the important things are (1) to have a "writing"; and
(2) to have the parties intend to be bound. In some cases the writing is
less important than the intent, although writings are a particularly
convenient way of memorializing and later proving intent.
Many other things may be relevant depending where you are. It tends to be
the case, in the US, that a fax is as binding in principle as any other
non-notarized paper. There can be special issues, however, going to the
relying party's ability to prove (2) above. For example, a scanned sig
appended routinely to a fax potentially raises the "rubber stamp" problem
-- did someone other than the signatory gain access to signature and use
it fraudulently. And so on. Since backup snail mail copies are cheap,
it therefore common practice to start on the basis of the fax, but expect
the mail copy to turn up in a few days, just to keep the file cabinet
happy.
You will of course appreciate that since I do know the details of your
situation, this does and indeed cannot, constitute legal advice. Indeed,
the odds are very good that I am not licensed to practice law in your
jurisdiction, whatever it might be...please consult a lawyer familiar with
the details of your transaction and jurisdiction(s) before making
important decisions, etc. etc.
OBCrypto: An increasing number of states have legislated that digital
signatures are a "writing" for various types of contracts and/or dealings
with state bodies.
A. Michael Froomkin =A0 +1 (305) 284-4285; +1 (305) 284-6506 (fax)
Associate Professor of Law =A0=20
U. Miami School of Law =A0 froomkin@law.miami.edu
P.O. Box 248087 =A0 http://www.law.miami.edu/~froomkin/
Coral Gables, FL 33124 USA =A0 It's warm here.
