Are electronic signatures on Clinch legally binding?
Short answer: yes, for the vast majority of business contracts — service agreements, NDAs, freelance work, consulting retainers, and similar commercial documents. Here's the plain-English version of why, and where the line is.
Simple Electronic Signatures (SES)
Clinch collects Simple Electronic Signatures: a typed name or a drawn signature, tied to a signer's identity via their email address and an audit trail (IP hash, timestamps, and a SHA-256 hash of the document content, all recorded at signing time). Under the US ESIGN Act and the EU's eIDAS regulation, this is legally valid for standard commercial contracts, on the same footing as a wet-ink signature.
What this is NOT
Clinch does not provide Qualified Electronic Signatures (QES) or identity-verified signing. Certain documents — wills, real estate transfers, court filings, and a handful of other categories that vary by jurisdiction — require notarization or a higher assurance level than any SES-based tool (including DocuSign's standard tier) can provide. If you're not sure whether your document falls into one of these categories, a local lawyer can tell you in five minutes.
What makes a signature enforceable
Courts generally look for: clear intent to sign, consent to do business electronically, and a reliable record of who signed and when. Clinch builds all three into every signature: an explicit consent checkbox before signing, an audit trail of every view/sign/decline event, and a certificate page appended to the final PDF with the document's hash and full timeline.
Disclaimer
Clinch is not a law firm, and this page is not legal advice. Contract templates and AI-generated drafts should be reviewed before sending, especially for higher-stakes agreements. When in doubt, consult a lawyer licensed in your jurisdiction.