Patent ID: 8271393

Claim:
A method for facilitating a transaction between two or more parties comprising the steps of: receiving one or more electronic documents and an identity validation at a server computer via a network from a client communications device of a first party to the transaction wherein (a) the client communications device comprises a computer, a workstation, a personal data assistant, an Internet-enabled phone or a wireless communications device, (b) all of the one or more electronic documents are locked against future changes, and (c) the identity validation of the first party indicates that the first party has agreed to the one or more electronic documents; receiving registration information at the server computer via the network from the client communications device of a second party to the transaction wherein the registration information comprises the identity validation of the second party; assigning the transaction to an account on the server computer that is accessible via the network; posting the received electronic documents to the account on the server computer such that the client communications device of the second party can access the posted electronic documents via the network; providing the second party with access to the received electronic documents; and whenever an acceptance of any of the one or more electronic documents is received by the server computer from the client communications device of the second party, attaching the identity validation from the first party and the second party to the accepted one or more electronic documents.