One of my clients raised an interesting contract law question the other day: Is an executed signature page sufficient, or should you ask your counterparty to scan the entire agreement?
From rental contracts with retreat groups to simple agreements with local contractors, many camps have had a common experience: We send out a contract by email, our recipient prints it out, signs the last page, takes a picture from their phone, and sends us a new email attaching the executed signature page and nothing more. Is that acceptable?
The gold standard for digital signatures is using Adobe Sign, DocuSign, or a similar platform. Once signed, you get back a full contract including a verified signature. A close second is receiving the full scan of a signed contract by email.
The least desirable option is receiving a signature page with nothing more. As a legal matter, a standalone signature page may be sufficient evidence that two parties reached an agreement.
A signature page certainly indicates an intention to be bound by a contract -- but which contract? Imagine a situation in which your counterparty argues that they didn't sign the contract you sent them, but rather, they signed some other contract.
If you only have a signature page, then it's hard (if not impossible) to prove what your counterparty signed. Was it the agreement you sent them? An older version of it? Some other agreement that you've never seen before? The "On Contracts" blog has an interesting summary of how this played out in a Delaware case.
To avoid the issue, your best bet is sending out contracts on a platform like Adobe Sign or DocuSign. The second best option is making sure that you receive the full scanned and signed contract in your inbox. That avoids any subsequent factual dispute over what was or wasn't signed.