Why you should initial every page of an agreement!

The validity of the vast majority of written agreements does not require that the agreement be signed. However, it is advisable to always have an agreement signed, given, among other things, the evidentiary consequences that the law attaches to it. Those consequences also mean that it is primarily in a person's own interest that every page of a signed agreement be initialled by him.

The probative value of a signed agreement

In court proceedings, it is left to the discretion of the judge what probative value is attributed to written agreements that have not been signed. As a result, the court can attribute less probative value to a written agreement than to, for example, a witness statement which implies that the parties have agreed on something completely different from what is stated in the written agreement. This becomes different when a written agreement is signed by the parties. In the latter case, the law stipulates that the signed agreement, between the parties, provides compelling evidence of what they state in the agreement. This means that the court can then no longer ignore the agreement and must assume that the parties have actually declared what is written in the agreement.

Recently, the Supreme Court issued two interesting rulings on the probative value of signed agreements.

Proving who signed

In the first case presented to the Supreme Court, a party relied on an agreement that, she claimed, was signed by her and her counterparty. However, the other party adamantly denied that the signature on the agreement was hers. According to the Supreme Court, the one who invoked the agreement therefore had to prove that the signature had been placed by the other. As long as it was not proven who the signature came from, the written agreement did not have any probative value.

Proving that pages have been replaced

In another matter before the Supreme Court, a creditor had brought a two-page agreement to trial. The debtor acknowledged that the signature on the last page was his, but he disputed that the first page corresponded to the agreement he signed. The debtor argued that the first page of the agreement was replaced by the creditor after the agreement was signed by the parties. Thus, according to the debtor, the agreement was forged.

The Supreme Court ruled that it was nevertheless the creditor who had to prove that the first page did not belong to the agreement. Indeed, because of the signatures on the second page, the entire agreement had acquired the aforementioned coercive evidentiary status. Obtaining that evidentiary status does not require that every page of an agreement be signed. A signature at the end of a multi-page agreement is sufficient. However, a court may assume in certain situations that (part of) a text was later placed above a signature. This may be the case, for example, if the text of an agreement contains unexplained irregularities.

Conclusion and tips

This latest Supreme Court ruling demonstrates once again the importance of initialing an agreement. After all, if only the last page of an agreement is signed, there is a risk that the remaining pages will be replaced. The court must then assume the correctness of the forged agreement as long as it has not been proven that the agreement has been tampered with. The moment all pages are initialed, it helps considerably in proving that pages have been replaced. Moreover, it reduces the chances at all that the other person will take it into his head to edit the agreement. So it is primarily in your best interest to always initial agreements.

In addition to initialing an agreement, it is also wise to always keep the original agreement (not just a copy). The moment discussion then arises about the authenticity of the signature placed under the agreement by the other party, an expert can be called in to examine the signature. Such an examination is many times better performed on an original signature than on a copy.