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NY Administrative Regulations 2012 (Advertising)

Rule/Regulation

State: New York

Effective: December 11, 2012

Summary

New administrative regulation Section 200.1 implements S 5672, effective March 23, 2012, in listing the foreign terms a nonattorney Notary may not use in a foreign language advertisement for Notary services to mean or imply that he or she is an attorney. The new regulation also provides the advertising disclaimer Executive Law 135-b requires to be posted in a non-English advertisement for Notary services in Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Spanish, Korean and Haitian Creole.

Affects

Adds Subchapter L (“Notaries Public”) Part 200, Section 200.1 to Chapter V of Title 19 of the New York Codes, Rules and Regulations (NYCRR).

Changes
  1. Prohibits the use of specified foreign language terms that mean or imply that a nonattorney Notary is an attorney licensed to practice law in New York or in any jurisdiction of the United States in a non-English advertisement for Notary services.
  2. Provides translations of the disclaimer in Executive Law 135-b that is required to be posted in a non-English advertisement in Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Spanish, Korean and Haitian Creole, and requires the notice to be printed clearly and conspicuously in an ad.
Analysis

Senate 5672, enacted last year and effective March 21, 2012, prohibits a non-attorney Notary who advertises in a language other than English from using any terms that mean or imply that the Notary is an attorney licensed to practice law in New York or in any other jurisdiction of the U.S., and requires Notaries who notarize in such a foreign language to include in the advertisement a prescribed notice. Under this law, the Secretary of State was required to promulgate regulations specifying the terms a Notary must avoid using to mean or imply the Notary is an attorney. The Secretary also had been granted authority to publish any other regulations needed to implement the new law. The regulations were announced as adopted on September 26, 2012 and take effect on December 11, 2012.

To read the text of the administrative regulation, download the PDF below.

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