How well does an electronic signature hold up in court?

I recently signed up for an online course. The course consisted of 4 parts which collectively totaled around $2,800.00. The registration was conducted online. A recruiter from said online course walked me through the online registration over the phone. At the end I had to type my name and check a box stating that i had signed electronically.

After a month of being in this course I realized that it was a scam. 2800.00 plus the cost of the 4 books (around 50.00 a piece). They wanted 3,000.00 for this course of which the only directions the course gave me were to read the chapters in the book, and then complete the chapter review questions which were located in the book. I could have just bought the books for 50 bucks a piece and gotten the same results.

I withdrew myself from the course 40 days after signing up. The people then told me over the phone that I owe them half the tuition for withdrawing early. They stated that in the contract, there is a penalty for early withdrawal if I didn't withdraw within 30 days of sign-up. I argued with them that they never provided me with a hard copy of said contract that I could review at a later date.

Will this electronic signature hold up in court?

Yes.

Of course it will hold up.

If you were happy with the course but they wanted to denyyou access would you expect the contract to be enforcable?

They never provided me a copy of the contract.

Because it was online? Why didn't you print it off?

Look - by your own statement you agreed to the terms of the 'contract' - whether you have a copy or not is really not that relevant.

Upset Student:

They never provided me a copy of the contract.

You read it online and acknolwedged same.  You could have printed a copy at that time, before, or after.  So print one now and make sure it says what they are telling you.

Odds are you are stuck--you signed the contract.

Now if you are under 18 you may be able to walk away--and there might be some issues if the vendor does not have the necessary licenses (if any ) to provide that service inside MA--but you need more legal Moxie than I have for that one.

A strong electronic signature under the requirements of UETA and E-Sign Law will hold up in court. 

However, my question to you is how do you know that they did not change the Ts & C's of the Agreement that you signed after you signed it?  Can they provide you with a copy of the original and proof of an unbroken audit trail to that document or transaction?  In addition, did they provide you with notice that you typing in your name would be used as a signature as required? If not, you may have a chance to fight this is court. 

I believe that too many companies doing business on line today believe that just assigning a check mark in a database (or an "I agree" button on a web page) is sufficient to pass as a legal signature that will hold up in court.  However, with the examples I mentioned above, there is a BIG difference between legally admissible and legally enforceable.  Good luck, and if your company ever does need a strong electronic signature, please visit us online at www.eoriginal.com.

Morris Abell:

However, my question to you is how do you know that they did not change the Ts & C's of the Agreement that you signed after you signed it?  Can they provide you with a copy of the original and proof of an unbroken audit trail to that document or transaction?  In addition, did they provide you with notice that you typing in your name would be used as a signature as required? If not, you may have a chance to fight this is court. 

Note that most contracts do not require a written agreement at all to be enforceable. In most states, the contract like the one the poster entered into is not one that requires a writing to be enforceable. Thus, whether the method used here amounts to a "digital signature" isn't really relevant. So long as the company could show that the poster agreed to the contract and what the terms of that contract were, the company will succeed in court. Agreement can be proven a number of different ways; it's not necessary to have a signature on a written document to count in most contracts that don't involve the sales of goods or real estate.

"Written Agreement". I think that's about as confusing as the term "signature"  :-)

When I referred to a "copy", I was just talking about a recreation of the e-contract for distribution as may be needed for dispute.  Along with that e-contract should be some form of consent (e-signature), and a digital signature is a specific form of e-signature and that is one of the choices for e-signature.   As you point out, Agreement can be proven in a number of ways.  But the burden of proof is on the company and companies need to take that responsability seriously to avoid serious risk to the business.  

Taxagent, I'm not sure if you are associated with a company that provides a product or service through an online consent, but if you are and would like to know how some of our large customers are securely accomplishing this, please visit our web site at www.eoriginal.com, or please give me a call.  Thanks