It was issued by the Justice Department and, yes, it can also be applied
to federal agencies unless the documents in question are called out as
exceptions (i.e. wills, adoptions, divorces, cancellation of utility
services, eviction of residence, termination of health insurance, recall
of product where safety is at risk, and transportation documents for the
handling of hazardous materials).  Many states have issued their own
versions of electronic signature requirements, however, in section 104,
the ESIGN Act "supersedes any requirement by a FEDERAL regulatory
agency, self-regulatory organization, or State regulatory agency" that
requires "specified standards or formats".   

Section 101(b) does not REQUIRE people to use electronic signature.
However, when electronic signatures are used then Subsection (c),
requires a Consumer Disclosure" that the consumer also consent
electronically in a manner that reasonably demonstrate that the consumer
can access information in the electronic format that will be use to
provide the information that is the subject of consent.   Subsection (d)
details the retention of contracts and records.  If a "statute,
regulation, or other rule of law requires" the file to be retained then
"that requirement is met by retaining an electronic record".

The very first section 101 (a) states that a contract or signature "may
not be denied legal effect, validity, or enforceability solely because
it is in electronic form".  In effect, electronic signature and records
are just as good as their paper equivalent and subject to the same legal
treatment that applies to paper documents.  Court cases in recent years
have strengthened that such records have to demonstrate authenticity
(person who signed is who they say they are), integrity (true and exact
record and it has not been tampered with), and non-repudiation.

Accuracy and availability are discussed in (d.1.B) and (e).  The record
must be available to all parties involved.  This can be accomplished by
allowing each signatory to save an electronic copy of the record on
their own computer or placing the information in an environment that can
be accessed by the parties involved.  The record and any associated
signatures must be in a format that is both accurate and accessible.
The technology and associated processes used to capture, read, display,
or transfer the record has to be controlled, demonstrate integrity, and
be generally acceptable to both parties.

Keep in mind, however, that E-SIGN also preserves the rights of
individuals to NOT USE electronic signatures under some circumstances,
however, even the Federal agencies can be challenged on that issue.

Back in 2002, RadioShack wanted to stop microfilming I-9's and image
them instead.  We did not want to retain the original paper because it
was redundant and labor intensive to manage (when filming, we routinely
destroyed the original forms).  Immigration and Naturalization Services,
then a branch of the Justice Department who had issued E-SIGN, objected
on the grounds that their regulations only permitted paper or microfilm
copies that could be printed back to paper.  We filed a petition arguing
that the INS was in direct conflict with its own parent agency because
they were not technology neutral, the process by which we captured I-9's
was demonstrably reliable and could be printed back to paper, and they
were denying the authenticity of the record based solely on the fact
that it was in electronic form.  We did not require them to use the
electronic copy.  We only asked that they let us print I-9's from the
scanned image back to the paper as we did from microfilm during an
audit, therefore, they could not object on the grounds that their right
to use paper was not preserved.  We agreed that they could audit our
procedure for imaging the I-9's in order to validate the authenticity of
the record that was being printed back to paper.  

We won.  The INS changed its law shortly after. Today, we have an
electronic "onboarding" process that allows applicants to sign off an
I-9 electronically.  We no longer have to scan the documents.

-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Peter Kurilecz
Sent: Sunday, March 01, 2009 4:55 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Invoices

On Sun, Mar 1, 2009 at 5:17 PM, Angie Fares
<[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> The justice department issued the E-Sign Act of 2002.  It states that,

> unless otherwise specified, the authentiticity of a document cannot be

> denied solely on the basis that it is in electronic form.


Is e-sign applicable to federal agencies?

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