Are electronic signatures legal in Hawaii?

The core rule in chapter 489E

Hawaii enacted the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act in 2000 (Act 282). It applies to electronic records and signatures created on or after June 28, 2000 (HRS § 489E-4). Section 489E-7 sets the basic rules: a record, signature or contract can't be denied legal effect just because it's electronic, an electronic record satisfies a writing requirement, and an electronic signature satisfies a signature requirement.

An electronic signature is an electronic sound, symbol or process attached to or logically associated with a record and adopted with the intent to sign (§ 489E-2). Evidence of a record or signature can't be excluded in a proceeding just because it's electronic (§ 489E-13).

Hawaii's extra rules on agreeing to go electronic

Like every UETA state, Hawaii applies the act only between parties who have each agreed to do business electronically, read from context and conduct. Then § 489E-5(b) adds protections the uniform act doesn't have, and they can't be varied by agreement:

• An agreement to go electronic can't be tucked into a paper standard-form contract. It has to be a separate, optional agreement whose main purpose is authorizing electronic transactions.
• A standard-form contract can't be conditioned on agreeing to transact electronically.
• Paying an account or registering a purchase or warranty electronically isn't, on its own, an agreement to do business electronically.

Section 489E-5(c) adds one more. If a seller sells both online and offline and a buyer buys electronically, the buyer can refuse to handle anything further about those goods or services electronically. That right can't be waived.

What Hawaii's act excludes

Hawaii's act lists its own notice exclusions in § 489E-3(b), on top of the usual wills and commercial code carve-outs:

• Wills, codicils and testamentary trusts.
• The Uniform Commercial Code, except § 490:1-201 and Articles 2 and 2A (sales and leases of goods).
• Notices of default, including acceleration, repossession, eviction, foreclosure or the right to cure.
• Notices of utility shutoff, including water, telephone, gas and electricity.
• Notices of cancellation, termination, lapse or material change of insurance, insurance benefits, life or viatical settlements, or service contracts.

For those notices, chapter 489E isn't what makes an electronic version valid, so follow the law that governs each notice.

How it fits with the federal ESIGN Act

The federal ESIGN Act also makes electronic signatures valid in interstate and foreign commerce (15 U.S.C. § 7001), and it lets a state that adopts UETA modify or supersede parts of it (§ 7002). When a law requires you to give a consumer information in writing, follow ESIGN's consent steps too. The plain-English guide covers how the two laws work together.

Notarization and remote online notaries

When a law requires a document to be notarized, certified, acknowledged or made under seal, the authorized person's electronic signature or seal, with the required information, satisfies it (§ 489E-11). Since January 1, 2021 (Act 54 of 2020), Hawaii also lets commissioned remote online notaries notarize for people who appear by communication technology (HRS § 456-23). See remote online notarization. SignMaster doesn't notarize documents.

Keeping good records

Give signers a copy they can print and save: a record the sender stops someone from storing or printing isn't enforceable against them (§ 489E-8(c)). Keep the final version accurate and accessible to meet retention rules (§ 489E-12). In SignMaster, signers can download the finished PDF, and a certificate of completion at its end lists each event with its timestamp. Every signer also agrees to sign electronically before signing, and that agreement is recorded.