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Category: Notary

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In an earlier post, I talked about how Notaries identify signers. You can read that post here. This year, there have been some changes to what forms of ID can be used by Notaries to identify signers of documents. The forms of ID now acceptable to use are:

1 Identification card or driver’s license from State of California;

2 US Passport;

3 An ID card or driver’s license from another state or by a an Canadian or Mexican public agency authorized to issue Drivers Licenses;

4 An employee id card issued by an agency or office of the State of California or an agency or office of a city, county, or city and county in California;

(And new this year, a Notary can use)

5. A tribal identification card from a federally recognized tribal government;

6. A consular identification card and a foreign passport without further qualification;

7. Any form of ID issued by a sheriff's department that is current or has been issued in the past 5 years for a prisoner in custody in a county jail or local detention facility.

If the signer does not have one of the above IDs that is valid, there still is a way they can be identified for purposes of a notarization. It's called using a Credible Witness. A signer's identity can be verified by a single Credible Witness that the notary public personally knows or by two Credible WItnesses who are not personally known to the notary public. In both of the Credible Witness situations, the notary needs to be able to identify by ID the Credible Witness(es) using the IDs listed above. No matter what, someone, the Credible Witness(es) or the signer him/herself, must have a valid ID. NO EXCEPTIONS!

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Recently the National Notary Association published another model notary act, this one dealing with electronic notarizations. It's called the Model Electronic Notarization Act of 2017 referred to as MENA. A very good article about this Act has appeared on page 10 of The National Notary Magazine put out by the NNA.

While I haven't read the Act in it's entirety I believe that this article is a very good introduction to the new act and explains the basics of it. What I hope happens is that Notaries Public read the article and the Act in order to learn what is coming in the future. 

In regards to electronic notarizations, I am skeptical of moving towards using this technology to do notarizations. What I am most concerned about is the lack of personal physical appearance when a notarization is being done. I recently wrote a blog post on Personal Appearance and its importance to the notarization process. 

With electronic notarizations (where the client is not physically present but communicating via audio-visual means), I believe that there is a possibility for improper identification. One method for identification in this situation is where the client answers questions which only the client is supposed to know the answer. This is a fair way to identify someone but there are drawbacks. The answers to those questions may possibly be found online from postings, messages, or picture information posted on social media. A lot of personal information is being shared these days online. Very good authentication needs to be done. There is also the issue of the quality of the audio-visual connection. 

I do believe that we need to move with the times and incorporate new technologies into the work that Notaries Public do. I think notarization of electronic documents might be a first step. I have worked with electronic signatures and I do believe that the are valid in a court of law. There already is a way for a notary to "stamp" a document with an electronic notary stamp. I might explore that as a new avenue of notarizations that I might do. The new MENA put out by the National Notary Association is a good first step but we need to go slowly so that we don't lose sight of why notarizations are done, which is fraud prevention and validation of signature. 

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In March, I wrote a blog post that talked about how notaries identify signers. You can find that here on my blog.  Another important tool and requirement for a notary is "personal appearance".  Personal appearance for a notary implies that the person who is to have their signature notarized is in the physical presence of the notary. There is a current trend toward allowing notarizations to be done via the web, using technology to bring the notary and the signer together.

Currently, there a six states considering allowing web notarizations and three states that do allow it in one form or another. There is a good article that recently appeared in the Notary Bulletin , from the National Notary Association, which discusses recent bills being considered in regards to web notarization. Web notarization is where the signer of the document connects with the notary over the web by video and audio. Verification of the signer is done by asking certain "knowledge questions" that only the signer would know. That's the authentication that the signer is who he or she purports to be.

I am skeptical about this form of "verification". With a lot of personal information and data available online via social media, chatting, and other electronic means, I feel that it's a real possibility that someone could fake being you with this type of verification. With in-person personal appearance being required in California, I can at least speak with the person and physically handle their ID, checking to see if it might be fake. No, it's not always easy to tell if an ID is fake. Criminals are getting very sophisticated these days but at least with a person in front of you, you have a chance to not make a mistake because of poor electronic connection or poor audio.

I understand that web notarizations might make our job as notaries easier, since we won't necessarily have to travel or meet with someone and can do the notarization right from our desktops. I believe that since our jobs as a notary is vital to keep fraud from happening, we need to be extra vigilant is making sure we are notarizing the correct document for the RIGHT person.  Yes, let's harness technology to make our work lives easier and maybe even more convenient for customers and ourselves but we should not neglect or lessen our ability to provide authentication of signers just to make things "easier".

 

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There are three main ways in which a notary can verify the identity of someone BEFORE they notarize a document with that  signature: ID cards, personal knowledge, and using credible identifying witnesses. California, where I am commissioned, only allows ID cards and credible identifying witnesses. Other states may allow all three methods which are described below. (Notaries: check the laws in your state to see what's allowed). 
...continue reading "Who Are You? The ways a notary identifies signers."

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In this day and age, we need to make sure that we are all protected from those unscrupulous business folks who will try to cheat us out of what we deserve. This is where a notary comes in handy. A notary can protect you from fraud. I once won a contest for a free copy of software. In order to claim my prize, I had to sign a document and have it notarized. The contest folks wanted to make sure that the correct person got the software and that I was who I said I was. Not just anyone could get the prize because I had to "prove" who I was. ...continue reading "Who needs an Notary? YOU DO!"