Dmitry Uryakin has explained whether it is legal to use facsimiles in documents
Dmitry Uryakin, Senior associate, Head of General Business practice at Maxima Legal, has explained specifically for Agentstvo Pravovoy Informatcii (Legal Information Agency) whether it is possible to sign documents using a facsimile and insert a graphic signature into the scans of documents sent.
“The parties to a handwritten agreement have the right to stipulate in it that in future all or certain legally significant documents (acts, letters and others) may be “signed” by means of a facsimile. In the absence of such an agreement, there is a risk that the court will recognise the use of a facsimile as inadmissible and the written form as not having been complied with. The use of a scan of a signature inserted using a graphic editor has similar consequences.
However, courts often depart from such a formal approach and recognise documents bearing a facsimile or a graphic image of a signature as “legal”. In particular, when it can be reliably established from whom the document originated and to whom it is addressed, or when there is a business practice between the parties to sign documents with facsimiles, which have not been disputed by anyone before. Or if the seal of the organisation is used together with the facsimile.
Also, the actual “signing” of a document may be evidenced by the subsequent behaviour of a party. For example, when the buyer paid for the goods received under the act with his facsimile”, explained Dmitry Uryakin.