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“Don’t believe the signed one” — Anita Chatterjee’s comment for the Legal Information Agency

A contract, power of attorney, cash register or other document can be signed with a simple autograph, which is practically unidentifiable. The use of a circular seal by organizations is not mandatory and also does not guarantee authenticity. Experts see the prospect of protecting the market from counterfeiting in the development of electronic document management.

In practice, participants in legal relations are forced to simply believe that the signature on the document really belongs to the specified person, including the head of, perhaps, a large company. In order to reduce the cost of "rubber", legislators exempted private companies from the obligation to produce seals, which were historically considered as a guarantee. Moreover, the bill submitted to the State Duma in mid-March abolishes the institute of the round press and non-profit organizations.

Anita Chatterjee, Lawyer at Prime Advice:

Often, even in the process of preparing documents for a transaction, the parties request from each other internal documents confirming the authority of the head or representatives. These can be bank cards with signature samples, minutes of the general meeting of participants and others. You can also request from the partner a copy of the order on assuming the position of CEO or a letter of confirmation of authority. Such documents, as a rule, contain samples of signatures of the relevant persons.

But in these cases, the authenticity of the signature is not confirmed by an independent third party. Therefore, the counterparty still bears potential risks when taking them at face value.

The current legislation prescribes that only non-profit organizations and unitary enterprises should have and apply a round seal. In addition, it must be affixed to the powers of attorney issued by legal entities.

For all other cases, printing is not mandatory, that is, it may not be present on all documents they issue. On the other hand, we must not forget about the established practice in business circles - a document with a seal affixed next to the signature is psychologically perceived more favorably. The absence of a seal in the contract by one of the parties may cause the counterparty to doubt its good faith and seriousness.

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