I thought the customary way of signing on behalf of someone else (assuming you have permission) was
Canadjun’s signature per Someone Else.
Or has has using per gone out of fashion?
I would do: " jtgain’s signature FOR Canadjun " if I was authorized to sign for you.
I thought that, in a strict legal sense, a signature is any mark used to authenticate a document, and doesn’t have to have any specific form or even contain any part of your legal name, as long as the mark was made with actual intent to authenticate the document. So, in theory, I could make my “signature” be two hearts and a stick figure family, if I wanted it to be. I would probably have difficulty in real life, but if it ever got to court, “Your honor, robert_columbia won’t sign this document! He just made a few heart and stick figure marks on it!” the judge would ask me if that is my signature and I could answer yes, and I would win.
I know someone who once signed a fictitious name on a rent check (no intent to defraud) in order to check if anyone would notice. Nobody did and the check went through perfectly.
That’s exactly right. Under the common law, the sole requirement for a valid signature is intent to create a valid signature. It doesn’t matter what mark is made.
Well, in the context of a court order in my example, it would certainly be considered perpetrating a fraud upon the court, as well as the crime of forgery. I’d expect someone that did that intentionally would be disbarred.
Lawyers are “officers of the court”. That means we may not knowingly lie or misrepresent any material fact to the court. It also means that if we are arguing for a position contra to controlling authority, we are required to cite the controlling authority to the court.
For example, I could not argue to a court that “separate but equal” schools for children of different races is perfectly legal and something the court should approve without citing* Brown v Board of Education* which shot that argument down in flames years ago. I could, in theory, argue that my case is somehow distinguishable from Brown, or that Brown was wrongly decided and my local trial court should ignore one of the most famous SCOTUS opinions of the last century. My local trial court would then politely overrule me…well…ok…at least one Chancellor might announce from the bench that I was full of shit if I did something like that, but the point remains.
There is no point if there is no allegation of fraud or theft , but motor vehicles doesn’t know which transactions will result in allegations of fraud and/or theft If I sign a bill of sale transferring my watercraft to someone else and they register it, there’s no problem. The problem comes up when someone steals my boat and forges a bill of sale transferring it from me to them. At some point ( probably after I sue the person in possession of my boat) the signature on the form will be compared to other signatures of mine. In the same way that banks don’t check the signature on every check, but will if the account holder claims they didn’t sign the check.
When I was in the military, I occasionally had to sign official correspondence that was officially from my Commanding Officer.
(The top of the correspondence stated:
FROM: COMMANDING OFFICER, USS [SUBMARINE]
TO: COMSUBGOD [or whatever])
The CO’s typed name block was at the bottom. Anyway, if the CO was not available (like it was after hours and he was at home), and with his permission, I would sign MY name over the CO’s name block, and write after my signature the notation “BY DIRECTION.”
I would never have dreamed of signing my CO’s actual name, which seems to be what some others have said they have done, or have had their secretaries do. That seems awfully close to forgery. What do you do if the person whose name you’re signing denies they gave you permission?
The same thing you’d do if your CO denies giving you permission to sign your name where his would have gone?
There is no consistency to it. My mom is over 90, and I handle all her financial stuff for her. She lives in another state, so getting her signature on things is a hassle.
You would think that filing her tax return would require a signature, but no. As long as I know what her AGI was last year, I can file for her with no problems.
On the other hand, I once tried to open a CD with her as a joint owner at a local bank, and they refused to do it without her physical signature. They assured me that because of new laws after 9/11, it would be the same everywhere. I went home and opened an account for her over the internet, and nobody asked for a signature from her.
When my friend died, leaving behind a wife and young girl, that night the widow was nearly insane w/ grief and a general breakdown. He had committed suicide, where an autopsy is generally required, except for requests by religious Jews (in the ground in three days, etc.).
She, her cousin, and the Rabbi agreed to write the letter, but she had already gone incommunicado by the time we worked out the wording. So I signed it.
Almost a year later, the widow sued my ass for fraud.
There’s a difference, though: if I sign (i.e. forge) my CO’s signature, there’s no way that an outside observer can tell whether or not I’m attempting to purport that the signature is actually the CO’s.
By signing my own signature with the annotation “BY DIRECTION”, I’m making it very clear that I’m signing on the CO’s behalf (and that I’m not actually the CO), and that there is no intent to defraud.
To put it another way, in the first situation, if the CO is asked later if he signed something sometime after the fact, he would simply say, “That’s not my signature.”
If he’s presented with something signed with the “BY DIRECTION” method, he would simply say, “That’s LT Smith’s signature. He was on duty when that letter was signed, so it makes sense that I would have given him permission to sign for me ‘by direction.’”
P.S. Nobody noticed the “COMSUBGOD” crack, eh? 
I feel that that’s a distinction without a difference.
It must hold legal weight. I signed dozens of arrest warrants that way when I was working and all of the people who were subsequently arrested ended up with a copy. You’d think at least one of them would have raised the issue if the warrants I was signing weren’t legally valid.
When it matters even more, you get a signature guarantee from a bank. They’re normally used to securities transactions but my estate lawyer recommends them for PoAs if his clients have any significant assets.