Does a typed name count as a signature?
Most business agreements need no special form. A signature is valid when the person means to sign the document and does something to show it. With The Seal, they type their full name, tick a fixed sentence and press Sign, on a page they reached from a link sent to their own email address. For an ordinary business agreement in England and Wales that is a valid electronic signature. This page explains what it is, what bernard keeps to prove it, and what it is not for. It is not legal advice: if you are unsure about a document, ask a solicitor.
The prompt
“I want to send [what the document is, for example: a lease, a client agreement, a guarantee] for signature. Can I use The Seal for it, or does it need something else?”
Signed in, Get my prompt fills in your site for you. Otherwise press Copy and fill in the [bracketed] parts. First time? Connect your AI to bernard once: Use your own AI (opens in a new tab).
What the person does
They read the whole agreement on its page, type their full name, tick “I have read this agreement and I agree to it. I understand that pressing Sign is my signature.” and press Sign. Nobody can change that sentence, including you. How you send it is Get a contract signed.
The proof bernard keeps
At the moment of signing, bernard records:
- the name they typed, and the email address the link was sent to;
- the date and time they signed;
- the internet address and the browser they signed from;
- the fingerprint of the exact PDF they were shown, and later the fingerprint of the signed copy.
The last page of the signed PDF, the certificate of signing, prints all of this except the signed copy’s own fingerprint: it prints the fingerprint of the copy that was signed. The signed copy’s own fingerprint is on the agreement’s page, beside the first. A fingerprint is a long code worked out from every byte of the file: change one comma and it changes, so anyone holding a copy can check it against the page to see it has not been altered. The internet address appears on the PDF only. It is not shown in your list of agreements.
A signed agreement is never edited afterwards. If something in it was wrong, the fix is a new agreement that says which one it replaces (Someone has not signed the agreement I sent).
Never use The Seal for these
Some documents need more than a typed name by law. Never send these with The Seal:
- deeds, including a deed of variation;
- documents that need a witness to the signature;
- land: selling, buying, transferring or leasing it in a way that needs a deed;
- wills and codicils;
- some HMRC and Companies House forms that set their own way of signing;
- guarantees, where someone promises to pay another person’s debt.
If you ask Bernard to send one of these, he tells you it needs another way of signing and sends nothing.
The person’s data
The name, email address, internet address and the PDF are your records about your client, kept under your account and used for nothing else. bernard holds them for you, the way it holds your contacts.
Questions people ask
- Is a signature with The Seal binding?
- For an ordinary business agreement in England and Wales, a typed name and a ticked box on a page reached from the person’s own email is a valid electronic signature, and The Seal keeps the proof of it. It is not right for deeds, wills, land, guarantees or anything that needs a witness.
- Can the person draw their signature instead?
- No. A drawn squiggle on a screen adds nothing to the proof, so The Seal does not offer one. The typed name, the tick and the record of when and from where are what count.
- Does bernard check the person’s identity?
- No. The proof is that the person signed from the link sent to their email address. If you need an identity check, use a service that does one.
- Can Bernard send something on the excluded list if I approve it?
- No. Bernard will tell you that document needs another way of signing, and will not send it, even with your approval.