Digital signatures are playing an increasing role in conducting business and transactions. Yet they are not as "visible" as wet signatures and members of the profession might want to scrutinise such a signature further. Below are detailed instructions on how to validate the Smartcard digital signature.
There are two version of the instructions available, the first for Microsoft Word documents.
Validating a signature in Word documents
The second version shows you how to validate a signature in an Adobe pdf document.
Validating a signature in PDF documents
In addition to the above instructions, you can also confirm the current status of a Solicitor's digital signature. To do so, please follow this link. To use this 'certificate checking tool,' you need to know the email address that is registered to the Solicitor's Smartcard. If the Solicitor sends you a PDF document with a digital signature, the email address will be part of the signature. If you receive a Word document with a digital signature, you will have to view the signature in the document (double click) and open the tab labelled "Details." In the line titled "Subject," you will find the email address (which can be copied and pasted into the certificate checker).
To confirm a solicitor's practising status, please click on the icon below. If you have trouble using the tool, please check your web browser's compatibility view settings.
