Nebraska becomes the first bankruptcy court in the nation to allow debtors to sign bankruptcy petitions digitally.

An amendment to Nebraska Rule of Bankruptcy Procedulre 9011-1 became effective February 5 allowing attorney to use services like DocuSign and SignEasy to obtain client signatures on official court pleadings.

The immediate reaction? One central Nebraska attorney emailed me this:

This is fantastic! My client signed, we were notified, I signed, all before I could even drop her hard copy in the mail (mail leaves [our small central Nebraska town] at 12:30, so timing wise we have a completed document before the mail left the building)!  I am so pumped!

Nebraska is a big state spanning 450 miles across. It commonly takes 7 to 10 days to get documents signed and returned in the mail, and that is especially vexing when a client’s wages or bank accounts are being garnished. Allowing the use of digital signatures is truly a blessing for small town debtors who do not have quick access to a lawyer, let alone a bankruptcy attorney. (12 of Nebraska’s 93 counties have no lawyers at all.)

Debtors in our largest cities also benefit by not having to take time off work to sign routine documents they have already viewed via email.

Nebraska bankruptcy attorneys are lucky to receive this historic change in court procedure. Allowing digital signatures will encourage them to make changes to documents that improve the accuracy of bankruptcy schedules since it will be so much easier to get updated signatures on the fly.

Most attorneys will continue to gather old fashioned ink signatures on paper, and there is nothing wrong with that. But for those of us who represent clients in all 93 Nebraska counties and who are in constant email contact with clients to view and discuss developments in their case, the use of digital signatures is truly welcome.

Sincere thanks is due to Judge Thomas Saladino who was willing to review the signature process and to make changes to Nebraska’s court procedures.

Image courtesy of Flickr and Charles Knowles