Electronic Transaction Laws Enacted
NOTARIES WANT CLEAR GUIDELINES
Senate Bill 671 which was signed into law late in 2005
establishes new rules for e-notarization. This bill authorizes the individual
Secretaries of State to set additional state specific guidelines by which
e-notarization will be implemented in their state. In this bill Notaries will be
required to take additional training to qualify to become an electronic notary
with an emphasis on continuing the requirement that the signer must appear
before the notary.
Later in May 2006 there will be an Electronic Drafting Meeting
of state officials. They should come away with a more decisive view of where
they as a state expect to be regarding e-notarization and goals of when they
expect to have a functional system. Some local clerks have already started
recording documents electronically. Check with yours. The
UETA*
(Uniform Electronic Transactions Act) was enacted by most states as well as the
enactment of the E-Sign Act on a federal level. The enactment of UETA and E-Sign
currently allow for many contractual documents to be executed with an electronic
signature, however, there is additional legislation needed to cover the
recording of real estate documents at the local level. There must be an orderly
conversion of local recording offices to implement an electronic recording
system. The starting point for this is URPERA (Uniform Real Property Electronic
Recording Act).
The basic goal of
the Uniform Real Property Electronic Recording Act is to create legislation
authorizing land records officials to begin accepting records in electronic
form, storing electronic records, and setting up systems for searching for and
retrieving these land records. The intent is only to authorize such activities,
not to mandate them. It will need to be adopted by every state. What will the
adoption of URPERA do for states who have also adopted UETA? This will create
the final step to a totally paperless mortgage industry. URPERA will create a
recognition of electronic documents and electronic signatures as an equal to
original paper documents and physical signatures. It will establish standards
for electronic recording which will need to be implemented in every recorder's
office nationwide.
It is likely e-notarization will
play a large part in the mortgage and real estate industry before it becomes the
norm in our local general public.
*
UETA
Section 11 specifically addresses the notary portion of an electronic
transaction.
LEGAL DISCLAIMER:
We are not attorneys licensed to practice law and cannot give or accept fees for
legal advice. Anything and everything in this website should not be considered
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Industries, LLC in no way guarantees the accuracy, correctness or legal capacity
of any form on this site. Any form or otherwise displayed on or taken from this
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LEGAL DISCLAIMER: We are
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everything in this website should not be considered legal advice.
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Copyright © 2003 Halitek Industries LLC. All rights reserved.
Revised:
11/19/07
