Sign legibly

Transcript:

Hello!

There are many ways for Italians to confuse English speaking people if they want to. For example, tell me that Giovanni didn’t come to your meeting last night and that he “threw a package at you” (ti ha tirato il pacco). I’ll be very concerned about your health, but probably not so concerned about the fact that Giovanni didn’t come to the meeting. Or, continue by saying that it was a good thing that Giovanni didn’t come to your meeting because there were only “two cats” (due gatti) at your meeting. Now I’d be (sarei) very, very worried about the types of meetings that you’re having in your office.

Another way to really confuse the English is to tell them to “sign legibly”. We have no idea what you mean. It’s like asking us to draw a “legible triangle” or to draw a “legible square”.

Our signature is our mark, and when we’re young we spend hours and hours and hours trying to create what we believe is the perfect mark that represents us, and we use this mark on documents to leave a trace that we were there and that we signed it. Now suddenly you have this really important, international entrepreneur or business person in your office, who signs documents all over the world, in various jurisdictions and you are telling them that their signature is not good enough for the document they need to sign in your office and that they need to “sign legibly”.

If you have a few minutes, try and look at Donald Trump’s signature online. Do an image search for Donald Trump’s signature and see what it looks like. Now try and imagine having Donald Trump in your office, ready to sign a document, and you tell him that his signature is not good enough for your document and that he needs to “sign legibly”.

The best way to get the result you want is to say to the person to please write (not sign!) their name and surname in cursive (in corsivo). If you want, you can tell them that Italian law requires them to not write their name and surname at the end of the document in block letters (in stampatello), but that the Italian law requires them to write their name and surname in cursive. Everyone will understand exactly what you mean and be very happy to write their name and surname in cursive for you. You’ll have the desired result, you’ll have the document signed in the way you want it, and everyone will leave your office in a very happy way.

Thank you, and see you next time for more Peter’s Pills to improve your legal English.

For your interest:

The guidelines given by the UK government on their website for signing deeds (atti) are as follows:

“To be validly executed as a deed, each individual must sign the document. Making one’s mark on a document is treated as signing it. The signature must be on the document itself in the space provided and the words of execution must name the signatory or otherwise make clear who has signed the document. For obvious reasons, the signature ought to be in ink or some other indelible medium.”

Legal English – Sommario delle Lezioni

• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 50 – Executive and Non-Executive Directors
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 49 – Transfer of shares vs transmission of shares
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 48 – They, them, their for singular nouns
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 47 – Jointly and severally
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 46 – Invoice words
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 45 – Quotation
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 44 – Gazumping and Gazundering
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 43 – English words that the English do not understand
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 42 – Easement vs Profit à prendre
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 41 -er, -or and -ee names
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 40 – The Objects Clause
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 39 – When is Latin hot, and when is it not?
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 38 – Default
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 37 – Company Agent
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 36 – Injunction (false freind)
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 35 – Mortgage
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 34 – Freehold, Leasehold and Commonhold estates
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 33 – Transferor, Transferee and Transmittee
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 32 – Tax evasion, tax mitigation and tax avoidance
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 31 – Numbers
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 30 – Ordinary resolutions vs special resolutions
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 29 – AGM vs EGM
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 28 – A going concern
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 27 – Collocations: Violate, breach, break, disobey and infringe
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 26 – Company meeting words
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 25 – Mortgagor vs Mortgagee
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 24 – Fixed charges vs Floating charges
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 23 – Doctrine
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 22 – Construe
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 21 – Sign vs Execute
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 20 – The closing statement
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 19 – Writing Business Emails
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 18 – Limited companies
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 17 – Annual Accounts
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 16 – Meetings
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 15 – Attorney-at-law vs Attorney-in-fact
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 14 – Here and there compounds
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 13 – Subject Matter
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 12 – The clear days rule
• Legal English – Peter’s Pills – Lesson 11 – Shareholder, Member or Holder of shares?
• Legal English: Peter’s Pills – Lesson 10 – Competition Law
• Legal English: Peter’s Pills – Lesson 9 – Lasting Power of Attorney
• Legal English: Peter’s Pills – Lesson 8 – Guardianship
• Legal English: Peter’s Pills – Lesson 7 – Damage vs Damages
• Legal English: Peter’s Pills – Lesson 6 – Legal Doublets
• Legal English: Peter’s Pills – Lesson 5 – Escrow
• Legal English: Peter’s Pills – Lesson 4 – Memorandum of Association vs Articles of Association
• Legal English: Peter’s Pills – Lesson 3 – Sign legibly
• Legal English: Peter’s Pills – Lesson 2 – Deed poll
• Legal English: Peter’s Pills – Lesson 1 – Party, counterparty and counterpart

Peter Liebenberg

Peter Liebenberg è uno specialista nella formazione delle persone nella conoscenza della lingua inglese. Ha creato molti corsi nel campo dell’inglese per professionisti, tra cui English for banking, English for business e English for Insurance, ma ha sempre avuto un debole per l’inglese legale. Altri corsi che ha creato comprendono Phrasal Verbs I e II. Quando Peter non fa formazione, corre a Parco Sempione, crea arte nel suo studio sulla Martesana e fa volontariato.