In the United States the ESIGN Act and UETA give an electronic signature the same legal standing as ink on paper. Across the European Union, eIDAS does the same. SignSecure captures the evidence that proves it, on every single send.
Both the ESIGN Act and UETA describe an electronic signature as a sound, symbol or process attached to a record and adopted with intent to sign. Enforceability comes from proving the circumstances around that act, and that proof is built into every send.
Two mature legal frameworks, one signing experience. You do not choose a mode or a region before you send.
The Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act, signed into federal law in 2000, states that a signature, contract or record may not be denied legal effect purely because it is in electronic form. It applies to interstate and foreign commerce, which covers most of what a growing business signs.
The Uniform Electronic Transactions Act, published in 1999, carries the same principle into state law and has been adopted by 49 states plus the District of Columbia. New York reaches the same result through its own Electronic Signatures and Records Act, so the whole country is covered.
Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 applies directly across every member state. It confirms that an electronic signature may not be denied legal effect or admissibility as evidence simply because it is electronic, and it names three levels of assurance a signature can meet.
Between them these frameworks cover the agreements most teams send every day: sales contracts, renewals, order forms, statements of work, NDAs, offer letters and vendor paperwork. A qualified electronic signature under eIDAS carries the same legal effect as a handwritten signature throughout the Union, and one created in any member state is recognised in all of them.
Each level adds assurance on top of the one before it. Most commercial agreements sit comfortably at the first two.
Data in electronic form attached to or logically associated with other data, used by the signer to sign. A drawn or typed signature with a supporting audit trail sits here, and it is admissible as evidence across the EU. This is where the majority of everyday business agreements are signed.
An advanced signature is uniquely linked to the signer, capable of identifying them, created using signature data under their sole control, and linked to the document so that any later change is detectable. Identity checks and cryptographic binding do the extra work here.
An advanced signature created by a qualified signature creation device and based on a qualified certificate from a trust service provider on the EU trusted list. It is the level that carries automatic equivalence to a handwritten signature everywhere in the Union, and it suits deeds, public tenders and other formally regulated documents.
Both frameworks name a short list of documents that stay outside their scope. Knowing the list up front makes it easy to route those few items the traditional way and send everything else electronically.
ESIGN section 103 places wills, codicils and testamentary trusts outside the Act. Local probate rules govern how they are executed, and they usually call for witnesses in person.
Adoption papers, divorce filings and other family law matters are excluded, and are handled through the court process that applies where the family lives.
Court orders, notices and other official court documents sit outside ESIGN, alongside a short list of consumer notices such as utility cancellation, foreclosure or eviction on a primary residence, and product recalls.
Commercial agreements, employment paperwork and vendor contracts all sign electronically.
Some countries add their own formality for deeds, real property transfers or notarised instruments. eIDAS leaves those national rules in place, so it is worth a quick check for cross-border work. Most commercial agreements need no witness at all; where a document type does require one, SignSecure records the witness as a signer with their own identity trail.
If you are unsure whether a document type suits electronic signing, our team is happy to walk through it with you and point you at the right reference.
The certificate of completion travels with the signed PDF, so the story of the signing is never separated from the agreement itself. Open one and you can see exactly what happened, in order, to the second.
An electronic signature audit trail is admissible in court when it evidences attribution, intent and integrity, so every SignSecure document carries timestamps, signer events and a recorded document hash.
Legal standing rests on knowing the document you are reading is the document that was signed. That is a security question, and it is answered before the PDF ever reaches your inbox.
When the last signature lands, SignSecure flattens the completed document so its values cannot be edited in place, calculates a SHA-256 hash of the finished file, and stores that hash against the agreement with a server-side timestamp. If a single byte of the file changes afterwards, the recalculated hash no longer matches the one on record, which is how a disputed copy is checked against the original. That is what checkable means in practice: not that change is impossible, but that change is always visible.
A note on this page. This is general information about how electronic signature law works, written to help you get oriented. It is not legal advice, and it does not create a lawyer client relationship. For guidance on a specific agreement or jurisdiction, please speak with a qualified lawyer. Last reviewed August 2026.
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