Digital Signatures

Signing documents via electronic signatures is becoming a common practice because of convenience, particularly when it is not convinient for signatories to meet in one place to sign documents.  This practice involves use of online tools allowing parties to affix their signatures without physically signing documents.

However, their use may be risky. In a NSW Court of Appeal case, Williams Group Australia Pty Ltd v Crocker [2016] NSWCA 265 the signatory demonstrated that, although he had been a user of a signature system, he did not authorise placing of his signature on the documents and that an unauthorised person must have done so.

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