Electronic signatures for contracts

[hx009]

I know there are at least a few independant contractors on ATOT so hopefully one of them is reading OT today that can answer a quick question. I landed my first independant contract (side work programming, nothing big.. maybe a week or to of work). I grabbed a contract off the net and customized it to fit my needs and sent it over to the contracting party. They signed the last page, scanned it as a JPG, and sent that back to me. They basically left off the first several pages (nothing on those needed to be signed... just the last page). My question is if there was ever a question of one party or the other violating the terms on the first few pages, could the guy simply say "I never agreed to that, I only signed the last page, thats all I emailed him!". I know that if you fax a signed contract over you at least have a record of all pages being faxed (and agreed to) and that it is pretty enforcable.

Should I insist he scan the entire document signed as a multi-page TIFF or PDF? I don't want to be a jerk on my first contract, but I also don't want to leave the terms open to interpretation.

Cliffs:
Landed first contract
Other party scanned/signed/emailed last page
Should I make him scan and resend the whole document?

 

[Evadman]

I am not a lawyer, so don't sue me. Most contracts are multi-page, and you do not have to sign each one. There are page numbers, rev numbers, etc that link the contract together. Keep your copy of the entire thing so you know what they are agreeing too.

 

[WannaFly]

I've always put at the bottom or side lines for initals on each page
aka, written in pen of course

SM ____
RS ____

 

[fr]

With the last few I had to sign, there were boxes for me to initial at the bottom of each page.

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Are you going to be on site to do the work? Have them sign it in person there with you.

 

[hx009]

Originally posted by: WannaFly
I've always put at the bottom or side lines for initals on each page
aka, written in pen of course

SM ____
RS ____

That's a good idea. I'll have to add that to future contracts.

 

[hx009]

Originally posted by: AgaBoogaBoo
Are you going to be on site to do the work? Have them sign it in person there with you.

Unfortunately this is 100% remote work so I'll never see them face to face. That makes getting a concrete agreement even more important (IMHO).

 

[rival]

You could put on the last page reference to the other pages, by signing the last page they acknowledge the previous pages or something along those lines

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Originally posted by: hx009

Originally posted by: AgaBoogaBoo
Are you going to be on site to do the work? Have them sign it in person there with you.

Unfortunately this is 100% remote work so I'll never see them face to face. That makes getting a concrete agreement even more important (IMHO).

Have it done by mail, and require initials or even a signature on each page. Oh, and use something like Fedex.

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: hx009

Originally posted by: AgaBoogaBoo
Are you going to be on site to do the work? Have them sign it in person there with you.

Unfortunately this is 100% remote work so I'll never see them face to face. That makes getting a concrete agreement even more important (IMHO).

sounds like its worth an hour of a lawyers time to make sure you know what youre doing for now, and the future.

 

[ElFenix]

firstly, if you have a legal question, please contact a lawyer in your jurisdiction. the following does not constitute a lawyer-client relationship between you and i:

assuming the last page doesn't only have signature blocks, no judge on the planet is going to buy the argument that they didn't agree to the stuff on the other pages.

rather than initials on each page (no one does that except apartments), you can just page number like 'page 1 of 6'.

lastly, they're probably sending you the originals by mail and keeping a copy for themselves.