Electronic signatures in California

Are electronic signatures legal in California?

Electronic signatures are legal in California. California joined the majority of the US in passing the UETA act for the regulation of electronic signing and electronic transactions in 1999.

What are the eSign & UETA Acts?

In the ESIGN and UETA acts, there are four major requirements for an electronic signature to be recognized as legal under U.S. law. The eSign act is known as federal law, thus making e-signatures legally-binding.

Here is California’s state legislature for the UETA and here are the recommendations from Lexology Magazine’s legal advisor.

The UETA & eSign requirements for California are:

1) Intent to Sign

No different than a wet signature, e-signatures are only considered valid if a user demonstrates a clear intent to sign, which Signable provides.

There must be expressed or implied consent from the signing parties to do business electronically. Signers also have the option to opt-out.

3) Clear signature association

Signable provides a clear and detailed audit trail that provides clear signature association once everyone has signed a document.

Everyone involved receives an email that includes the completed electronic document attached as a PDF and a certificate of signature.

The certificate of signature is an important document that includes important information including:

Who each signing party is
Dates, time stamps, IP addresses and fingerprints
A full audit log or audit trail

4) Record retention

E-signature records are only valid as long as they can be reproduced if required. Signable provides a signed copy via PDF and allows parties to download the document when required.

Signable provides all of the above, meaning that you can trust your documents will be legally binding in the US.

It’s worth noting that in the US electronic signatures and digital signatures are both popular and we provide e-signature services.

You can find out more about the difference between an electronic signature and a digital signature here.

What documents can’t be signed under these laws?

We’ll include a link to the full list of documents that are currently not available for electronic signing in the California. But, to name a few:

Documents relating to adoption, divorce and other family law matters
Some types of real estate transfer documents and other real estate agreements
Court orders, notices, and other court documents like pleadings and motions
Some types of powers of attorney
Wills, codicils, and testamentary trusts
It’s also worth noting that last year the Uniform Law Commission declared eSignatures legal for wills BUT only in some states, so follow the link included below to see if will eSignatures are legal your state.

In short are electronic signatures legal in california, yes!