Is an electronic signature valid under section 24 of the Limitation Act?

22. An electronic signature is defined in the Electronic Transactions Act as information in electronic form that a person has created or adopted in order to sign a record that is in, attached to, or associated with the record. In Johal v. Nordio, 2017 BCSC 1129 (Johal), the court said the statute’s language focuses on whether the sender of the electronic message intended to create a signature to identify him or herself as its composer and sender. In that case the defendant did not deny sending the email in question and had attached his name, position and contact information to the bottom of the email acknowledging liability. The court found the email satisfied the requirements of section 24 (6) of the Limitation Act.

23. In Druet v. Girouard, 2012 NBCA 40, the court said formal requirements for signatures serve the purposes of identifying the source and authenticity of the document, as well as establishing the signatory’s approval of the document’s contents.