Piercing the Light: E-Sign in Solar Cases

The use of electronic signatures (eSign) in solar contracts has become increasingly prevalent. Many solar companies have adopted eSign to streamline the contract signing process. Unfortunately, often eSign is not carried out correctly and there is rampant fraud with false signatures. Learn how to identify and challenge fraudulent electronic signatures, understand the nuances of eSign laws, and gather robust evidence to support your cases. Using case studies and real examples from actual solar fraud cases, this webinar will help you examine whether you can use eSign laws (UETA) to help resolve your cases.

What You Will Learn

• What are the different rules for records and signatures
• Why is it important to examine the use of eSign in solar fraud cases
• How to test the validity of signatures made with eSign
• What are the requirements of eSign consent
• How to meet the reasonable demonstration requirements

Speakers

Mr. Tom Domonoske graduated with honors from Hastings College of Law in 1989 and earned his B.A. from Occidental College in 1985. He practiced law in California before moving to North Carolina to teach at UNC Law School. From 1993 to 1996, he was a legal aid lawyer in Virginia, and then a Senior Lecturing Fellow at Duke Law School until 2000, while maintaining a small consumer law practice. Since 2000, he has focused on consumer law in Virginia. He was Of Counsel with Dale W. Pittman (1997-2009) and the Legal Aid Justice Center (2009-2016), before joining Consumer Litigation Associates in 2016. He has handled hundreds of consumer law cases and specializes in sales practices, loan originators, finance companies, investors, and state and federal consumer lending regulations.

Margot Saunders is a senior attorney with the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC), where she previously served as managing attorney of NCLC’s Washington, D.C. office from 1991 to 2005. Margot has testified before Congress more than two dozen times regarding a wide range of consumer law issues, including predatory mortgage lending, high cost small loans, payments law, electronic commerce, protecting benefits in bank accounts, privacy issues, and robocalls. She was the lead advocate on the passage of the Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act, led the development of the Treasury Rule protecting exempt benefits from debt collectors, ensured that essential consumer protections were included in the federal E-Sign Act, and spearheaded many other initiatives. In 1991, Margot was the second recipient of NCLC’s Vern Countryman Award.  Margot is a co-author of NCLC’s Consumer Banking and Payments Law, many articles, and a contributing author to several other NCLC manuals. She has served as an expert witness in over 50 consumer cases in more than 20 states, and as a consultant to private attorneys and state and federal enforcement agencies on dozens of cases. Margot authored the 2022 report, Scam Robocalls: Telecom Providers Profit. Prior to joining NCLC, she was the consumer law specialist for North Carolina Legal Services.