How Docusign helps you stand up in a court of law

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Summary•3 min read

Docusign complies with rigorous rules around eSignatures and provides advanced authentication, audit trails and record integrity.

Docusign proudly sets a gold standard for world-class legal protection, meeting the rigorous requirements of many legal systems around the world. Want to know how?

First, we have rock-solid digital technology

Docusign’s eSignature technology comes with watertight yet configurable authentication options, a comprehensive digital audit trail and bank-grade security. We also offer a court-admissible Certificate of Completion for all transactions.

In Australia, Docusign meets all the requirements for a valid electronic signature under section 10 of the Electronic Transactions Act 1999 (Cth). Under this Act, if Commonwealth law requires that you provide a handwritten signature, you can do it electronically instead. Note that there are some types of documents that still require a handwritten signature in Australia – see a summary of the latest rules about eSignature legality in Australia.

Second, we go beyond the minimum requirements

When it comes to the rules around eSignatures, there are some minimum requirements in terms of what information you need to capture, and how. Most eSignature providers meet these requirements. But they often fall short in capturing adequate proof about who signed what, when they signed it, or where.

Docusign proudly offers the widest range of advanced authentication methods including everything from an email address through to knowledge-based authentication, in-person authentication and electronic notary.

Our eSigned and tamper sealed Certificate of Completion contains a comprehensive digital audit trail including signer names, authentication history, eSignatures, email addresses, signer IP addresses, chain of custody (i.e., sent, viewed, signed, etc.), trusted timestamps, geolocation capture of signer (if provided), and completion status.

We also maintain industry-leading record integrity, with unparalleled hashing and encryption standards, retention and storage practices and data security ensuring the document can only be accessed, read and executed by designated users.

Finally, if needed, we’ll go to court with you

It’s very rare that a document that has been DocuSigned is challenged in a court of law.

But, if a situation arose where the validity of a document or a signature was questioned, Docusign is here to help. We will happily testify in court to support the validity of any document that has been DocuSigned.

In court or elsewhere, Docusign has your back

Docusign simply could not exist if it didn’t tick all the legal boxes. The success of our business relies upon the legality of our eSignature solution – people wouldn’t use Docusign unless it worked. Our priority is to make all DocuSigning experiences safe and secure, and to ensure that we continue to meet the rigorous rules for eSignatures both in Australia and around the world.

Remember, your first port of call if you are concerned about the legality of a document that has been electronically signed is a legal advisor.