It is now routine in Australian commercial practice for documents to be sent out for signing by email, so that parties can sign the documents in separate locations rather than come together for a formal signing ceremony. Even though this is common practice, however, there is little consensus among practitioners on what needs to be done to ensure the legal effectiveness of documents that are signed in this way. This can lead to last-minute disagreements on what is required, or result in documents being signed in a way that may not satisfy the relevant formal requirements of Australian law.
A group of major Australian law firms (including Ashurst), known as the Walrus Committee, has agreed on a set of protocols for the conduct of remote signings, in order to simplify the process of remote signings for transactions in which they are involved. The protocols, which you can access via this link, have just been published in the December edition of the Australian Business Law Journal. The firms hope that the publication of the protocols will assist the development of a market-wide consensus on how remote signings should be conducted in Australia.
