One of my favorite tools to use in my business is DocuSign. When it came out, it meant I no longer had to carbon copy contracts, and that was a life-saver. It has saved us so much time and energy in not having to run back and forth to clients’ houses to get them to sign things.
Because of the higher likelihood of fraud with DocuSign, it took our brokers a long time to accept it. Today I just want to make you aware of two things. One is a potential issue.
There is a group of attorneys who have made a cottage industry around unwinding transactions signed with DocuSign. Their argument is that since a client clicked on the DocuSign and signed the 10-to-20 page contract a few seconds later, they wouldn’t have time to read the whole thing before signing. They say since we know they didn’t read it and did nothing about it, we are liable for unwinding the transaction. The scary thing is that they are winning these lawsuits.
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This strategy comes straight from our legal counsel.
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So here’s how to avoid this problem. First, before you ever DocuSign something to a client, email them a set of pdfs outside of DocuSign. Ask them to review them thoroughly before signing the contract in DocuSign. Then give them some time, maybe an hour or two, to review the contracts. After that, you will get the DocuSign back and send them an email thanking them for signing it, and asking them to confirm that they read and fully understood everything they signed.
Those are the best practices, and they defend your business. It comes straight from our legal counsel here at KW. If you have any more questions for me, don’t hesitate to reach out. I’d love to be a resource for you and your career.
