Many US states have implemented electronic notary (e-notary) laws, and the National Notary Association (NNA) is working hard to help remaining states promote e-notary technology. In their July magazine, the NNA reported the “Lancaster, Pennsylvania County Recorder of Deeds, Steve McDonald, estimates his office records an average of 225 eNotarized docments a month.” That is an increase in about 10% over last year.
Currently, 39 states authorize the Electronic Notary Seal (ENS). This is good news for people wanting to use e-signatures to close mortgages, contracts, and any other agreement that needs to be signed. One of the only problems is that many signed documents must be notarized.”The eNotarization Initiative has paved the way for other types of electronic documents to be signed digitally.”
Although the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA) permits eNotarization, the current issue facing the e-notary initiative is many states have dissimilar e-notary security provisions. The Uniform Law Commission (UCL) is meeting October 3-5 to work on its draft of a Uniform Notarial Act that hopefully will establish a security standard for electronic notary seals.
More to come on this topic.
