How can a witness add their e-signature to a document?

[damianb1998318]

We typically send documents to clients, trustees, etc for signing via their unique email addresses .. no problems there. 

However, some documents also demand the signature of a witness. How do we go about fulfilling this requirement through Adobe Document Cloud eSign services?

Do our clients need to nominate a witness first (i.e. give us the intended witness' email address) so we can include the witness' email address when we prepare a document for signing? Therefore as soon as the client signs, the document is then emailed to the nominated witness to sign and verify?

I was looking at another product called Secured Signing which allows a signatory to invite a witness of their choosing to verify the document:

http://player.vimeo.com/video/114937340

http://player.vimeo.com/video/114937341

Is there a way to do anything similar through Adobe Document Cloud eSign services?

Thanks in advance

[Rijul Raj Khurana]

Hello Damianb1998318,

As of now, we don't have a feature to add a Witness in the document. However, the only workaround ( which you already followed) is by adding the email address of witness as second signer and once the first signer signs the document, it would be forwarded to him.

I have taken this as a feedback and will definitely pass it along.

-Rijul

[SimonATS · Accepted solution]

In case you don't know the email of the witness, you can repeat the email address of the original signer. When they get the email to sign after placing their first signature, the signer can then delegate their signature to the email of a witness of their choice.

[rafaelc50766700]

1. Is there any way today to introduce a witness or an approver when the sender has not enabled a two-step signature process.

2. Our customer uses e sign. We use e sign. Is there any way to integrate an external echosign e sign process with ours so that an external signature triggers the same approvals and notifications as our own.

3. Is it the case that when doing multiple delegations the email notification shows as being sent by the original recipient rather than the second delegatee?.

thanks for your attention

[damianb1998318]

Thanks SimonATS. Could you please run me through how the steps they would need to delegate their signature to the email of a witness of their choice.

Thanks in advance.

[SimonATS]

Hi Damian,

2 ways, both sneder and signer can delegate;

Sender:

once the sender knows which email they can select the out for signature agreement in their Manage tab and use the replace signer link to delegate signing.

Replace signer in an agreement | eSign services

Signer:

In the please esign email the signer receives there is a link 'Someone else should sign'. Clicking this link will start the delegation process.

[Mike25841691s2ej]

Any updates from Adobe on this question?  I'm hoping in the 7 years that have passed since the original question, Adobe has come up with a workable solution.  This seems like something basic and a very common use case.

[Meenakshi Negi]

Hi Mike25841691s2ej,

Thank you for reaching out.

I am afraid that there are no direct options for adding witnesses to the form. We will share this with the product team.

You may use the options described on the following document to add the witness signature: https://community.adobe.com/t5/adobe-acrobat-sign-discussions/how-to-get-the-witness-signature-when-....

Thanks,

Meenakshi

[Caitlin23162851c9wb]

Hi there

In some parts of Australia, e-witnessing of legal docs has become permanently allowable however there is a requirement to add a short statement alongside the witness signature to the effect of "this doc was witnessed by audiovisual link in accordance with the act XYZ". 

When setting up a document for AdobeSign, I can't see a way to make space for a free-text statement such as this - the free-text box currently available doesn't allow enough characters to fit the required wording. DocuSign has made provision for this after the change in legislation but am wondering if Adobe has done / is planning to do the same.

Interested to hear your suggestions

Many thanks

Caitlin 

[default397kjgk33cup]

I have done this by adding the text to the PDF before sending it for signature. Under where the witness signs I added ... I, ___________________, certify this document was signed in accordance with section 14G of the Electronic Transactions Act 2000 (NSW). and add another signature box for them so they sign the document twice.

[alexk2019]

Does anyone know how to send a document to an external party for signing and then for the external signatory to have their signature digitally witnessed? The external party needs to be able to electronically send the document to someone they chose to witness their signature. I can only see delegation option which replaces the original parties signature. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

I'm on  a trial version at the moment testing functionality to ensure appropriate for our organisation.

[Meenakshi Negi · Accepted solution]

Hi Alexk,

The workflow that you have described above is possible using the delegation option.

In this case, what you can do is repeat the email address of the signer in the recipient email address.

Then assign the role of a signer to first recipient and delegator to the second recipient.

The signer will first receive the document to sign it.

Once the document is signed, the user will receive the document again to delegate to the witness of his choice.

Hope that answers your query.

Let us know if you have any questions.

Regards,

Meenakshi

[madsj13481683]

Hi Meenakshi, this works well.

Given that we don't want the final agreement to go to the witness, how do we set up this workflow so the witness isn't emailed a full copy of the agreement after the signature?

Thanks and best regards,

[Meenakshi Negi]

Hi Madsj,

Sorry for the delay in response.

There is no setting to disable the final agreement email sent to the signer in the Adobe Sign account.

However, you may contact the Adobe Sign team to check if it can be done from the backend settings or not.

You may contact the support team using this link Contact Customer Care

Hope that helps.

Regards,

Meenakshi

[Abambo]

If the aim is to witness the signature, you could create 2 documents, one the document to sign and a second one, where the external party let's it's signature witnessed. 

[Marianna5D10]

Hi, 

Does Adobe Sign allow for witnesses to sign document or do you need to nominate people to sign all documents. 

[sameer_puri]

Hi,

Can you please elaborate the use case you are looking for with Adobe Sign?

Thanks

Sameer Puri

[Marianna5D10]

Hi Sameer

We have a legal document that needs to be witnessed however we don't know who the witness will be.

[sameer_puri]

Thanks @Marianna5D10  for the information. I suggest you to explore using Widgets in Adobe Sign. That doesnt require an email address for signers to be entered while creating the widget, and you will get a shareable link that you can share with the witnesses for signing whenever you are ready. 

LMK if that does or doesnt work for you and we can work together to see if there are any more possible options we an explore.

Thanks

Sameer Puri

[Marianna5D10]

Thanks Sameer

Sorry are you able to explain what you mean by using widgets? 

[sameer_puri]

Please go through the following help document that would give you some information on how widgets aka web forms work: https://helpx.adobe.com/sign/how-to/sign-widget.html

Please let me know know if you have any follow up questions.

Thanks

Sameer Puri

[David5C89]

Hi Sameer

I posted the following a few months ago and didn't get any replies.

Hi.  I am new to using Adobe Sign and need some assistance.  Is there a way of obscuring all the pages in a document other than the signature page when a witness is signing?  Can you exclude signatories ie. witnesses, from receiving the final signed document?   Thanks

I wonder whther you can help.  All a witness needs to do is see the main party sign and then sign their name.  They do not and in some instances must not see the whole documenta nd should never recieve a copy of it once it is signed.  Therefore, is there a way of excluding pages from the view of a "witness" and excluding them from receiving the final signed document.

[Sameer Puri]

Hi @David5C89,

Adobe Sign does support Limited Document Visibility feature. The Limited Document Visibility settings allow an agreement to contain multiple files that are selectively visible to the recipients depending on which settings are enabled and how the agreement is configured.

Good thing is that even after the signer signs the agreements, they will receive the signed copy which will only show pages where they signed (or were actually madde visible to them).

You can read more about the feature here: https://helpx.adobe.com/in/sign/using/limited-document-visibility.html 

If you have any questions regarding how to enable the feature and use it, please do let me know.

Thanks

Sameer Puri

[sameer_puri]

Hi @David5C89,

Adobe Sign does support Limited Document Visibility feature. The Limited Document Visibility settings allow an agreement to contain multiple files that are selectively visible to the recipients depending on which settings are enabled and how the agreement is configured.

Good thing is that even after the signer signs the agreements, they will receive the signed copy which will only show pages where they signed (or were actually madde visible to them).

You can read more about the feature here: https://helpx.adobe.com/in/sign/using/limited-document-visibility.html 

If you have any questions regarding how to enable the feature and use it, please do let me know.

Thanks

Sameer Puri

[sameer_puri · Accepted solution]

Hi @Marianna5D10 

There is another way to achieve this if you dont know the email address of the witness, you can repeat the email address of the original signer. When they get the email to sign after placing their first signature, the signer can then delegate their signature to the email of a witness of their choice. 

Hope that helps.

Thanks

Sameer Puri