Good Seal
Notes

11 September 2026 · 2 min read

What actually makes a document legally binding

Not the signature itself, and not the font size of the fine print. Here is what a court is actually checking for once a contract already exists.

Two different questions get flattened into the same phrase, "legally binding." One is whether a valid contract exists at all - offer, acceptance, consideration, and the rest, which is its own subject. The other, and the one this is about, is whether this document is good evidence that the contract was actually signed.

A document is only as good as what it can prove

Four things, specifically. A signed document that is missing one of them is weaker evidence than it looks, no matter how official the formatting.

Intent

The format has to make clear the person meant to sign, not merely that they interacted with a page. A signature box that is empty until deliberately drawn into satisfies this. A pre-filled field nobody had to act on does not.

Attribution

The record has to tie the signature to one identifiable person, not to "whoever had the link." An email address the document was sent to, an IP address at the moment of signing, and increasingly a code confirming control of that inbox are what make this hold up rather than merely being asserted.

Integrity

Proof the document has not changed since it was signed. A signature on paper says nothing about this unless someone specifically preserved the original untouched. A cryptographic hash over the finished file settles it without relying on anyone's diligence.

Retention

Being able to produce the exact same document, unchanged, years later - which depends entirely on whether anyone actually kept it, and in what form.

A signature scrawled on paper satisfies intent, and usually attribution, weakly. It says nothing about integrity unless someone thought to store the original, and retention depends on whether the paper survived a house move. A properly built electronic signing process is stronger than paper on all four counts at once - which is the actual reason courts stopped treating "electronic" as a reason for suspicion. Not because the law lowered the bar, but because done right, it clears a bar paper rarely did.

This is why every document completed through Good Seal carries a certificate page recording all four of these - intent, attribution, integrity, and a durable copy - rather than just a signature image and a hope.

Good Seal is a free DocuSign alternative: upload a PDF, place the fields, email a link. The other side signs in the browser and everyone gets a sealed copy.

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