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CA Senate Bill 997

Legislation

State: California
Signed: September 22, 2016

Effective: January 01, 2017
Chapter: 491

Summary

Senate Bill 997 now allows a Notary to accept a tribal identification card from a federally-recognized tribal government.

Affects

Amends Section 1185 of the California Civil Code.

Changes
  1. Allows a Notary to accept a tribal identification card from a federally-recognized tribal government as satisfactory evidence of identity provided it is current or issued in the past 5 years and contains a signature, description of the person and serial number.
Analysis

California Indian Legal Services, the sponsor of SB  997, reported that it had seen elderly or impoverished Native Americans living in rural areas prevented from, or delayed in, executing documents, due to having only a tribally-issued identification card rather than a driver’s license or other currently-accepted form of identification. For such individuals, the burden of obtaining such identification is considerable, given the financial and/or travel requirements involved. Thus, SB 997 was enacted to provide Native Americans in California with greater access to the services of California Notaries Public.

Read Senate Bill 997.

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