Electronic Signatures

The United States has rapidly become a society where access to information plays a dominant role in the economic and social progress of daily life. Along with the telephone, the computer and the Internet are the primary tools used to communicate in a fast-paced and quickly changing society. Americans use the Internet for numerous reasons, including to complete business transactions, conduct research, collect health, life and automobile insurance information, and to receive interest rate information and quotes for home mortgages. This report, Electronic Signatures: A Review of the Exceptions to the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act, contains a detailed review of the nine exceptions to the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (ESIGN or Act), an examination of how the exceptions are handled in electronic commercial and personal transactions, and recommendations regarding whether each exception should remain in the Act for the protection of consumers. The ESIGN Act facilitates the use of electronic records and signatures in interstate and foreign commerce and grants legal validity and enforceability to electronic signatures, contracts, and records. This general rule of validity does not apply, however, to the nine exceptions provided at section 103 of the Act.(1)