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comment

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Ken

Due to the awkwardness of signing on the signature pads consumers' signatures often do not match what it would on paper. This lack of a match has been successfully challenged in some industries with disputed bills. The consumer simply denied that it was their signature and since it was so obviously different in appearance from a paper signature they won. For myself, when it comes to liability and my income i would prefer to stick with paper contracts for any legal documents.

Alex Bruni

Halt Security Svcs.

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Response

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Good point. Electronic contracts are deemed valid by Federal law if procedure is followed, but you will still run into the same type of defenses that a paper contract would have. My office has processed thousands of alarm cases over the years and we have heard just about every excuse why a contract should not be enforced. "Not my signature" is a common one. Establishing the validity of a signature can be expensive if you have to resort to a handwriting expert, and I confess I have no idea how such an expert would compare a written signature to an electronic signature, unless of course they are obviously distinctive and the same (in which event you wouldn't need an expert).

For now I think I am going to have to go on record as continuing to suggest that you get your contracts signed in paper form. That doesn't mean you can't start using electronic forms however. For example, once you have a Service Contract signed you can get Service Tickets or Completion Certificates signed electronically.

Also, on line purchases can be electronic. You can't be expected to get paper contracts signed when offering your services over the Internet. I think that would pertain to sales in the first instance. If you are offering monitoring, and you are shipping a plug and play component, there is no reason you can't send a paper Monitoring Contract with the equipment. The system, and the monitoring services, commence only when you get the signed Monitoring Contract back with the subscriber information provided, or confirmed if it was already provided electronically.