Does signing on an iPad count as a legal signature?

Ask Roxy is a public service blog from the Law Offices of Roxanne Sher Olson (www.roxanneolson.com).  Roxanne is an attorney in Santa Cruz, CA.  Email your questions to askroxy@roxanneolson.com

With technology changing at such a rapid pace, the question of what makes for a valid signature is really getting interesting. If you can sign a little screen at the grocery store then can you sign a contract on your iPad?  In a word: yes.

In most states, if a court finds that your signature was intended by you to be valid it really doesn’t matter what form it took (e-signature, a scribbled “x”, a signature that someone signed on your behalf with your permission).  This is because signatures in our country are generally judged on the signatory’s intention when she signed rather than the modality of the signature.  It is also related to the fact that in the U.S. many types of agreements do not technically require any writing at all to be valid (but see here for my post on what types of contracts do need to be in writing and why the rest of them should be). 

There are two major exceptions to this rather lackadaisical approach to signatures. 

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