Many agreements (such as tax documents, land registry, powers of attorney, transfers of assets, and so on) require that the recipient sign their agreement in the presence of a witness. The witness can be almost any party physically present to observe the signer's application of their signature.

Acrobat Sign provides a selectable "role" in the configuration process that inserts a "signer" recipient with an associated "witness" recipient that the signer must define.

Before the signer can review the agreement, they must provide the witness's name and email address.
After the signer completes their signature process, the witness receives an email requesting their attestation to the witnessing of the signature process. The witness is asked to review their name and email address before they can interact with the agreement.
Additional fields can be assigned to the witness to capture any information your compliance requirements demand.

Note:

A "witness" is different than a "notary public."

A "witness" can be any person who is:

of majority
of sound mind
an independent, non-biased person who is not a party to the agreement
physically present at the time the signer applies their signature to the agreement

Witnesses may not be paid for the act of witnessing the signature process.

A "notary public" is typically a type of witness that is commissioned by a governing body (such as the State). The notarization process tends to be considerably more formal insofar as documenting the identity of the signer and usually requires a fee for processing.
E-notary services are also available through Acrobat Sign.

Work with your legal department to confirm if a witness or a notary is the requirement for your compliance demands.

Availability

The e-Witness role is available through different interfaces based on the enterprise service you have purchased.
Please select the version of Acrobat Sign you are using:

Acrobat Sign Solutions (enterprise)

Configuration

The feature can be enabled at both the account and group levels.

To review and edit the feature controls:

Log in as an administrator
Navigate to Account Settings > Global Settings > Allowed Recipient Roles.

The Send Settings admin menu highlighting the "Allow senders to mark recipients as signers with witness" control.

The configurable options are:

Allow senders to mark recipients as signers with witness - When enabled, signers have the option to select the Sign with Witness role on the Send page and in the Custom Workflow Designer.
- When disabled, the role is not available in the sender's pick list for the recipient role.
Allow signers to co-witness each other's signature - When enabled, recipients that are signers on an agreement can also be witnesses for other signers.
- When disabled, any participant who is part of the agreement (as identified by their email address) may not be a witness for another recipient within the scope of that one agreement.

When the control is enabled, the Sign with Witness role is exposed in the list of roles available to the sender on the Compose page and in the custom send workflow designer:

The Compose page and Workflow designer with the recipient roles expanded and the "Send With Witness" role highlighted.

How e-witnesses are added to and sign agreements

Once the role is enabled, senders can find the Sign with Witness role listed in the Role selector on the Compose page.

When a signer selects the Sign with Witness role, an additional configurable property is added below the recipient's record to identify that a witness is required and allow for configuring the authentication and private message for the witness.

Due to the nature of the witnessing process and how the witnesses are indexed, only a sequential signature flow is supported.

The Compose page showing the Roles drop-down expanded and the "Sign With Witness" option highlighted.

Phone authentication is available for use cases where a second-factor One-Time Password (OTP) is required for the witness (e.g., HMLR deeds).

Phone authentication is configured by the sender when composing the agreement, but the sender isn't asked to provide the witness's phone number. The signer provides the phone number of the witness when they identify them.

The witness is required to use a mobile phone to authenticate, and a text message is delivered (the phone call option is suppressed).
If a landline is used, an error is displayed informing the witness that they must use a mobile phone.

Caution:

The check to ensure the phone is a mobile device is in development and expected to be available in the March 2025 release.

The Compose page with a witness added to the recipient list and the authentication dropdown expanded.

Note:

Second-factor OTP witness authentication is optional in the sender's interface but may be required for your business use. Check with your legal team to understand your compliance obligation.

Private messages may also be added for the witness:

The witness record on the Compose page with the private message highlighted

Designing custom send workflows

Users who design custom sending workflows can find the Signer with Witness option when selecting a new recipient in the recipient flow chart.

Setting the Signer with Witness role installs both the signer (Recipient) and the witness (Witness Recipient) signer objects.

Note:

Configuration of witnesses in the Workflow Designer is expected to be in place for the March 2024 release. The current Insider Access version does not yet support this functionality.

The Custom Send Workflow interface highlighting the Send With Witness role on the Recipients tab

Ensure that the required fields are placed on the agreement for the witness

Fields must be authored into the document where the witness's signature is required. If a signature field is not placed for the witness, one is automatically placed at the end of the document.

Some use cases may require additional information from witnesses to complete a valid witnessing. Work with your legal team to determine what information is needed. Add the fields to capture this information, assign them to the witness, and mark the fields as required.

Note:

Limited Document Visibility rules apply to witnesses like any other participant. Only the files that contain fields for the witness can be viewed.

In-app Authoring: Assigning fields to the witness

The in-application authoring environment identifies the witnesses in the signature flow order and provides color-coded identifiers for them in the Recipients list.

The authoring environment showing the recipients list expanded and highlighting the Witness participant.The authoring environment showing the recipients list expanded and highlighting the Witness participant.

Text tags

Witnesses are recipients with regard to the indexing of participants. If you have two recipients that each require a witness, then:

The first signer is _es:signer1
The witness attached to the first signer is _es:signer2
The second signer is _es:signer3
The witness attached to the second signer is _es:signer4

The assignment of the text tag identifiers is consistent with the signature flow of the agreement. However, the indexing on the compose page does not account for the witnesses in the interface. (Witnesses are presented as an ancillary record of the identified recipient.)

The Compose page with the signing index used by text tags added in-line with the recipients in the recipient list

Caution:

Take the time to design and test your forms carefully to ensure the signature flow is correctly processed and participants are given access to the correct fields.

The signing recipient's experience

The signer's experience starts with an email notification that an agreement has been sent to them and that the agreement requires a witness.

After selecting the Review and Sign button and accepting the Terms of Use, the signer must provide the information for the witness. Access to the agreement is not granted until the witness information is collected.

The requested information is the witness's:

Full name
Email address
Optional: Mobile phone number (if second-factor authentication for the witness is configured)
- Landline phone numbers will trigger an error for the witness.

The signer's email with the input box for the witness information

If the signature process is terminated before the process is completed and the signature must be restarted, the witness information is lost and must be re-entered.

Note that the Confirm email field does not accept a pasted value. The email address must be typed in manually.

The witness's experience

Once the signer completes their signature, an email is sent to the witness's email address.

The witness receives an email that identifies the request for an attestation on the agreement and identifies the signer who nominated them.

After the witness selects the Review and Sign button and accepts the Terms of Use, they are requested to verify their information before being granted access to interact with the agreement.

The witness's email and the input interface to capture their address and occupation

Once access to the agreement is granted, the witness can fill in any fields required of them and apply their signature.

During the signature process, the witness may not change the name value provided by the nominating signer.

Note:

At no time does the witness have the ability to download the agreement, nor may they access it after they complete their witness process. No email attachment is sent, and if the witness has an Acrobat Sign account, the agreement does not appear on their Manage page.

Witness fields must be authored into the document where their signature is required. If a signature field is not placed for the witness, one is automatically placed at the end of the document.

If the witness's occupation and address isn't collected in the witness verification pop-up, you must add these as required fields assigned to the witness. Failure to do so may result in being out of compliance with the regulations for witnessing the agreement.

Limited Document Visibility rules apply to witnesses like any other participant. Only the files that contain fields for the witness can be viewed.

In-app Authoring: Assigning fields to the witness

The in-application authoring environment identifies the witnesses in the signature flow order and provides color-coded identifiers for them in the Recipients list.

Text tags

Witnesses are recipients with regard to the indexing of participants. If you have two recipients that each require a witness, then:

The first signer is _es:signer1
The witness attached to the first signer is _es:signer2
The second signer is _es:signer3
The witness attached to the second signer is _es:signer4

Caution:

Take the time to design and test your forms carefully to ensure the signature flow is correctly processed and participants are given access to the correct fields.

Manage page status

An agreement on the Manage page reflects the status of Out for Witnessing when the signature cycle is waiting for a witness to complete their attestation.
Note that recipients who are not witnesses continue to show the status appropriate for their role in the agreement (Out for signature, Out for approval, and so on).

The Manage page showing an agreement waiting for witnessing, with the Out for Witnessing status.

Audit Report and Activity list entries

All activities logged in the audit report for the witness are explicitly identified with appropriate terminology e.g., "Document attested by witness"

The Audit Report highlighting that the Signer requires a witness, and the witness's activity including their occupation and address.

The Activity list provides the same events of the audit report in a condensed format. The witness activities are clearly identified, but the signer's event does not include their requirement for a witness.

The Activity list highlighting the witness attestation

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