Today, we continue our series on how different industries benefit from eSignatures. This time we're focusing on law firms and how eSignatures can help revolutionise document workflows.
The importance of signatures on legal documents is paramount. Whilst eSignatures offer immeasurable potential in terms of the efficiencies they bring to legal processes, there is a real need to tread carefully to ensure that the right type of eSignature is being applied at the right time and on the right document.
Clearly this means your law firm needs to choose an eSignature solution that provides high-trust, legal certainty and long-term validity. It's also important that the solution offers the flexibility of basic, advanced and qualified options to suit every legal requirement.
Why is a mix of different eSignatures types important for law firms?
Whilst a basic signature is sufficient for many business tasks, but when it comes to legal documentation, the requirement is nearly always to have a technically robust signature that is admissible in evidence. This is when it is advisable to use advanced and qualified eSignatures.
Regulations and compliance
Solutions like SigningHub comply with a range of digital signature legislations, including the EU eIDAS regulation. This has been an important enabler for the adoption of eSignatures by law firms in recent years, made more useful by the fact that it regulates all EU Member States.
eIDAS provides a clear set of guidelines and legal acceptance of eIDs (electronic identity) and eSignatures. It also includes the use of eSeals, a corporate signature that can be used to automate bulk signing of documents.
Law firms and legal departments have a duty to ensure they trust the eID of the parties they are dealing with. The way they can do this is by ensuring PKI-based digital certificates are being used. These help to make communications channels in protocols such as SSL (Secure Sockets Layer), TLS (Transport Layer Security) and IPSEC (Internet Protocol Security) even more secure.
Despite the need to move ahead with caution on legal documents such as contracts, deeds and purchase agreements, there are countless other documents that support processes in law firms that also require signatures. This is where eliminating paper-based practices can have the most benefits.
This will help to improve productivity and save time, and it also uses less paper, lowers physical storage requirements and reduces costs.
Get in touch today if you work within legal services and would like to learn how to increase efficiency and productivity while cutting costs with SigningHub.
If you’d like more information about the legality of eSignatures check out our eBook.
