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Electronic Signature Laws by State

Updated September 22, 2026. General information, not legal advice — see the disclaimer below.

Electronic signatures are legally valid in every U.S. state, through two layers of law: the federal ESIGN Act, and each state's own version of UETA (the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act) — except New York, which uses its own separate law instead of UETA. Below: how the two layers work together, a table of every state's governing statute, and the specific document types federal law excludes from electronic signing at all.

The two laws, briefly

ESIGN (the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act, 15 U.S.C. §7001 et seq.) is a federal law passed in 2000: a signature or contract can't be denied legal effect just because it's electronic. UETA is a model law drafted by the Uniform Law Commission that each state adopts individually into its own code — it's the law actually doing the work for most ordinary contracts, with ESIGN operating as a federal backstop and a ceiling (it preempts a state law that tried to require specific technology or discriminate against electronic records outright). For the full breakdown of how the two interact, see our ESIGN Act vs. UETA guide; for the four conditions that actually make a signature enforceable, see is an electronic signature legally binding?

E-signature law by state

Every U.S. state has adopted UETA except New York, which has its own Electronic Signatures and Records Act (ESRA) instead. The table below lists each state's governing statute citation.

What can't be e-signed

ESIGN carves out a specific, limited list of document types it doesn't apply to at all — these need a wet signature or a different process regardless of what tool you use. Quoted from the actual statute, 15 U.S.C. §7003, not a secondary summary of it:

• Wills, codicils, and testamentary trusts.
• State family-law matters — adoption, divorce, and other matters governed by state family law.
• Most Uniform Commercial Code provisions, other than UCC §§1-107 and 1-206, and UCC Articles 2 and 2A (sales and leases of goods).
• Court orders, notices, and official court documents — including any pleading, motion, or other document filed in a court proceeding.
• Notices of utility service cancellation or termination (utilities meaning electric, gas, or water service).
• Notices of default, acceleration, repossession, foreclosure, or eviction related to a primary residence.
• Notices of cancellation or termination of health or life insurance (excluding annuities).
• Product recall notices, or material failure notices, related to consumer product safety.
• Any document required to accompany the transport or handling of hazardous materials, pesticides, or other toxic or dangerous materials.

State law can differ on some of these — New York's ESRA, for example, excludes a broader category of estate-disposition documents than a standard UETA state does. See the state deep dives below for specifics.

New York is different — not just a variation

Every state except New York adopted some version of UETA. New York instead uses its own Electronic Signatures and Records Act (ESRA), which covers similar ground but isn't the same law — it has its own exclusion list (broader on estate-disposition documents than a typical UETA state) and its own case law interpreting it. If you're transacting in New York, ESRA — not UETA — is what actually governs. See the full New York e-signature law page.

State deep dives

How this was verified

• UETA adoption status (which states use UETA, and that New York is the sole exception) is confirmed via multiple corroborating sources, including a law firm's dated account of Illinois's 2021 adoption — the last state to adopt UETA, replacing its prior Electronic Commerce Security Act.
• New York, California, Texas, and Florida's statute citations and notable provisions (detailed on their own pages, linked above) were verified directly against each state's own statute text or official state code site.
• The other 46 states' and D.C.'s citations in the table above were compiled from legal-reference sources and cross-checked against each other for consistency, but were not independently fetched from each state's own official code site for this page. Treat them as a strong starting point — confirm the current citation on your state's own official code site before relying on it for anything consequential.
• The ESIGN exclusion list above is drawn directly from the statute text, 15 U.S.C. §7003, not a secondary paraphrase.