Does a copy bill of lading require a signature? I am a banker. The question was placed with me by a colleague in a different part of the bank while I work in the Trade and Service Department which advises，negotiates and handles disputes in letters of credit where both the original bills of lading and copy bills of lading are handled each day in hundreds of transactions. The answer is easy. And it is ¡°no¡±. A copy of a bill of lading does not require a signature.

Both the original and copy bills of lading are issued by carriers or forwarders acting as agent for the carriers. Usually the bills of lading are issued in three originals and a number of copies are also issued for use by bankers and traders for their files.

The original bills of lading are issued in the original，duplicate and triplicate. Effectively，they are all originals and any one of them can be presented to the carrier to claim the goods represented by the bill of lading. And there are copies which are called non-negotiable copies of bills of lading printed on top of the copy bills of lading which are obviously not signed. If a copy is signed，then someone who does not read the title of the document ¡°non-negotiable copy bill of lading¡± might mistake the copy of bill of lading as an original bill of lading due to the signature.

Statutory interpretation