Typed name in email is a ‘signature’

In Hudson v Hathway [2022] EWCA Civ 1648, the Court of Appeal has confirmed that typing even just a first name at the bottom of an email may satisfy a legal requirement for a written document to be ‘signed’. In an increasingly digital age, this case is a timely reminder that email, and other forms of seemingly informal correspondence, can have legal consequences.

Background

The general rule under English law is that a contract does not need to be in any particular form to be legally binding. In some cases, however, a particular form of contract may be required by statute – for example, the contract may have to be in writing and ‘signed’.

The Interpretation Act 1987 defines ‘writing’, and it has long been established that emails will fall within that definition. However, there is no statutory definition of ‘signed’ and whether a mark in a document amounts to a signature will depend on why it was inserted in the first place.