Developments in technology in the last decade have sped up
signing and delivery of contracts. If you are like everyone else,
you sign and scan documents, letters and contracts to others
regularly. But should we be comfortable that what has become easy
and generally accepted is actually enforceable? Or could there be
an enforceability issue with the commercial lease, agreement of
purchase and sale for land or other contract that you just
completed? Well, unless you have exchanged originally signed copies
with the other side, there could be an enforceability problem with
your contract.
In 2000, the Province of Ontario adopted the Electronic
Commerce Act, 2000, S.O. 2000 (the "Act"). The
purpose of the Act was to provide a coherent set of rules for the
exchange of electronic information, and the effect of the Act is
that electronic documents have become functionally and legally
equivalent to their paper-based counterparts. Essentially, the Act
codified the everyday
