NJ Assembly 3818

The “federal E-sign” act and the state Uniform Electronic Transactions Act are intended to facilitate the use of electronic records and signatures in commerce by ensuring the validity and legal effect of contracts entered into electronically. Under the “federal E-sign” act, the definition of “transaction” specifically includes the sale, lease, exchange or other disposition of any interest in real property, or any combination thereof. AB 3818 amends the State UETA to include similar language. This bill may have been seen as necessary due to the fact that “E-sign” required a state either to have enacted the UETA as its governing electronic signatures and transactions statute or be regulated by the “E-sign” act itself. Since most states did not want the federal bill to govern, all except Washington, New York and Illinois enacted the UETA. But, having enacted the UETA, there may have been confusion in New Jersey over whether the UETA actually allowed real property transactions to be signed electronically. Assembly 3818 thus fixes this.