The IRS reports that last year nearly 90 million (around 58%) of US tax returns were submitted electronically, using the IRS approved PIN-based signatures. These simple electronic signatures show the increasing comfort of the American public with use of electronic signatures on extremely important legal documents.
Also – Silanis had a recent webcast where Patrick Hatfield of Locke Lord Bissell and Liddell, LLP presented on recent case law around use of electronic signatures. You can download the presentation from Silanis or get a PDF summary from Locke Lord Bissell and Liddell. The gist of it is: Make sure that the intent is confirmed, i.e. make it very clear that the signer is aware of the affirmative action of the electronic “I agree.” The courts will enforce the signature like any other, even in insurance recission cases!
An interesting point made by Patrick in the presentation: there are still no cases where the purported signer has denied that he signed the contract. Does this mean that we are spending too many calories worrying about signer authentication?
Posted by Mike Ambrose 
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