AnalysisThe state of Georgia has traditionally been an “attorney-closing state,” meaning that only licensed attorneys may conduct the settlement at which closing documents are signed. In 2003, the Georgia Supreme Court issued Advisory Opinion 2003-2 in which it reaffirmed that nonattorneys may not conduct any part of a real estate closing. This opinion has not stopped some nonattorney Notary Signing Agents from trying to operate under the radar. In addition, in recent years a new phenomenon has emerged in the attorney-closing states. In an attempt to get a piece of the real estate transaction business, Licensed Georgia attorneys who have not been the attorney of record during the entire transaction have conducted “witness-only closings,” basically doing what Notary Signing Agents do – attend only the appointment at which loan and real estate conveyance documents are signed. The companies dispatching these attorneys argued that they met the legal requirement of having an attorney present to conduct the loan closing. However, real estate attorneys across the state argued that it is the law in Georgia that a single attorney must handle all the parts of a real estate transaction, from abstracting title and rendering the title opinion, overseeing the signing of documents, and disbursing funds. Senate Bill 365 clarifies that only a lender or a licensed Georgia attorney may conduct settlements and disburse closing funds. The law prohibits anyone other than the settlement agent for the transaction to oversee the closing and disburse funds. The new law effectively joins these two activities together so that the one attorney who is the settlement agent must do both.
Read Senate Bill 365.