The Suzuki Method uses extensive listening and aural training to teach music to preschool-aged children. Suzuki called his approach the "mother tongue method" because it's based on the idea that children learn to speak only after months of listening to parents speaking their language. My son started Suzuki violin lessons on a 1/32-size violin when he was barely three. He has spent hours listening to music every day since, and music is like a second language to him.

As a Suzuki parent, when I saw an article entitled “Spontaneous rhythm discrimination in a mammalian vocal learner,” published in the October 2022 issue of Biology Letters, I thought it might be about how children learn rhythm along with speech. But the article wasn’t about children—it was about seals (the kind that live in the ocean).

Researchers took twenty wild-born seals and exposed them to music-like playbacks of seal calls using rhythmic patterns that varied in length, sequence regularity, and tempo. Surprisingly, the researchers found that, like young humans, young seals also can learn rhythm.

I’m fascinated with the idea that seals and perhaps other mammals might learn rhythm, maybe even music. But my day job requires that I deal with a more mundane type of seal – seals people put on legal documents. I was surprised to learn that an article about “vocal learners” was about seals, but legal seals also can bring surprises – and sometimes unpleasant ones.

This article discusses seals on legal documents, including a brief discussion of their history and what people should know about seals when signing legal documents today. Legal documents filed with a court “under seal” to protect someone’s privacy are outside the scope of this article.

The History of Seals

Seals date to ancient times. But the use of seals in the United States comes from the British (and before it, Anglo-Saxon) tradition.

Starting around the 10th century, wealthy men and nobility would wear a signet ring with their personal seal. They used the seal on their ring to emboss wax seals on legal documents instead of signing them. By the 13th century, other landholders and knights were using seals.

Churches and legal entities also had seals. For instance, the Pope still wears a signet ring (the Ring of the Fisherman), which is personal to each pope and destroyed upon his death.

Since the seal remained with the signer’s person, it proved the authenticity of the legal document in an era before technology sped communication. Seals were difficult to forge and nearly impossible to remove without damaging the document.

Therefore, under English common law (on which U.S. law is based), documents that were “under seal” were considered more reliable.

By the 20th century, wax seals had been replaced, first by embossed seals, which created a raised impression on paper. Toward the end of the 20th century, rubber-stamped seals replaced embossed ones. In the 21st century, seals are used less frequently. When seals are used, they often are added electronically.

How Seals Are Used Today

Seals still are used on some legal documents. Notaries still put seals on documents. Professional engineers and surveyors also continue to "seal" plans and surveys, albeit usually with a printed or stamped seal.

Although states no longer require them, corporations also may continue to use seals, which authenticate corporate documents. For example, the corporate seal will appear on stock certificates (although most stock now is uncertificated). Banks may require a corporate seal from corporate account holders. Legal documents, particularly those that will be recorded in government records, may include a corporate seal.

The Uniform Commercial Code specifically rejects sealing contracts for the sale of goods. Yet, some contracts continue to be signed “under seal.”

Today’s contracts have an actual signature. Often, there is no rubber-stamped or raised seal. Instead, the contract includes the notation [SEAL] next to the signature line. Less frequently, L.S. (which means locus sigilli, Latin for “place of the seal”) will appear next to the signature.

In addition, a contract signed under seal will include language stating the intention to sign the document under seal. Typically, a phrase such as “In witness whereof, the undersigned have put their signatures and seals" or simply a statement “this document is signed under seal.”

Many people ignore the bracketed “SEAL” next to their signature line or the recital that a document is being signed under seal. They believe the reference to a seal is a quaint anachronism that means nothing and blithely sign legal documents referencing seals.

However, that bracketed [SEAL} often isn’t as harmless as people assume. In most jurisdictions, the words seal alone add nothing to a contract. But, sometimes, signing a contract with [SEAL] adjacent to the signature may change the parties’ rights.

For instance, in Maryland, a contract signed by an individual "under seal" is subject to a 12-year statute of limitations rather than the usual three-year statute of limitations for contracts. In New York, the statute of limitations for contracts is six years, but an action on a document under seal has a 20-year statute of limitations.

There are technical requirements for a valid contract under seal. Sometimes the bracketed [SEAL] may not be adequate to alter the parties' rights. Still, parties should not sign a contract that says it is "under seal" or has a bracketed [SEAL] unless they want the contract to be "under seal."

Should You Sign a Document Under Seal?

In my experience, rarely is signing "under seal" a negotiated part of the transaction. Usually, neither party intends the contract to be under seal. The [SEAL] is a remnant from a document created decades ago that no one removed because they thought it was harmless.

When this happens, a party can cross out the [SEAL] and any language that says they are signing under seal before they sign a document. No one should sign a contract “under seal” unless they understand and intend the consequences.

This series draws from Elizabeth Whitman’s background in and passion for classical music to illustrate creative solutions for legal challenges experienced by businesses and real estate investors.