Electronic surety bonds and electronic signatures

New York State Workers' Compensation Board sent this bulletin at 05/09/2023 09:00 AM EDT

Electronic surety bonds and electronic signatures

The Workers’ Compensation Board’s (Board’s) Office of Self-Insurance has updated the surety bond and surety bond rider forms for workers’ compensation, disability, and Paid Family Leave (PFL) self-insurance. The Board has also established criteria for executing and submitting electronic bonds and riders.

Surety bonds with electronic signatures that comply with the provisions of the New York State Electronic Signatures and Records Act (ESRA), are acceptable to the Board and legally binding. The Board has determined that the following surety bond and rider forms will be accepted with electronic signature.

For workers’ compensation self-insurers:

  • Self-Insurer’s Surety Bond (Form SI-8)
  • Surety Bond Rider (Form SI-8.1)
  • Self-Insurer’s Surety Bond – Additional Affirmations (Form SI-8A)

For disability and PFL self-insurers:

  • Self-Insurer’s Surety Bond (Form DB-179)
  • Surety Bond Rider (Form DB-179.1)
  • Self-Insurer’s Surety Bond – Additional Affirmations (Form DB-179A)

Such forms must be:

  • complete and correct, with no alterations to language or content;
  • executed using a certificate-based signature, using Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader; and
  • properly acknowledged by a Notary Public, in accordance with NYS requirements for electronic notarization which require that the Notary Public be physically present in the State of New York.

To sign a document with a certificate-based signature, an individual must obtain a digital ID or create a self-signed digital ID in Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader. Additional instructions for executing a document electronically can be found on Adobe's Certificate-based signatures page.

Please note that while the Board is accepting surety bond forms with electronic signature, use of electronic signatures is not required. Printed bonds with wet ink signatures will still be accepted.

More information

More information can be found on the Board’s website by visiting the Individual Self-Insurance: Workers’ Compensation page and the Individual Self-Insurance: Disability and Paid Family Leave Benefits page.

For copies of these forms or additional information, please contact the Office of Self-Insurance at (518) 408-0959 or email selfinsurance@wcb.ny.gov.