Providing half-signed documents to all signers before all signers have signed

[Tom-H-L]

When you have a document that is to be signed by multiple signers, at docuseal the document as available for all signers to see the document with the signatures of the previous signers even before all have signed.

This is a huge security issue. The other singer is empowered to obtain a half signed document that leaves the first signer to be at the mercy of the later signer, since he can chose if and when he will sign, while the first signer is already bond by his signature.

For example if the contract is to by a car, and e.g. the seller signs the contract, the buyer can download this half signed contract and still try to buy another car, while he has the first car secured, since the seller has bond himself already with his signature and thus will get in trouble if he sells the car to someone else. The buyer can then either go buy some other car and leave the contract with the first seller unsigned forever, or if he sees that he can't get the other better car, return to the contract of the first seller and then sign it at some point later to still close the deal. Even if the first seller has deleted the contract at docuseal in the mean time, the malicious buyer can still print the half signed contract that he had downloaded and sign it by hand and still get a valid contract this way. If the seller has sold the car until then, he must pay damages to the buyer who has a signed contract but is not able to get the car since it has been sold elsewhere in the mean time.

At other platforms, e.g. PandaDoc the signatures of the previous signers are only displayed on the document as soon as ALL signers have signed, which is the proper way to do it. This way no signer is able to obtain a half-signed document, only an unsigned document or a document fully signed by all parties. This is the only proper way to do it.

The way it is now at docuseal is completely insecure and risky to use since the later singer can abuse it. The only way currently to prevent this would be if the seller is aware of this technical shortcoming of docuseal and thus he has included a provision in the contract that gives the contract a deadline to be signed by both parties, as you do with offers that expire, which is a very awkward, uncommon and impractical workaround and it also adds other problems, e.g. putting stress on the signers even if it would not be necessary if the platform would just withhold the partial signed contract until everyone signed.