Legislation
State: Maine
Signed: April 05, 2006
Effective: April 15, 2006
Chapter: 541
SummaryHouse Paper 1429 permits certain employee-Notaries of a jail to perform ministerial and Notary functions in connection with the preparation of personal recognizance or unsecured appearance bonds.
AffectsAmends Title 15, Section 1025-A and Title 30-A, Section 353 (applies retroactively to February 28, 1989) of the Maine Revised Statutes Annotated.
Changes - Allows a sheriff to authorize any jail employee who is a Notary to notarize for inmates (without a fee) – it specifies that they do not have to be corrections or law enforcement officers.
AnalysisEnacted as an emergency measure, House Paper 1429 permits certain employee-Notaries of a jail to perform ministerial and Notary functions in connection with the preparation of personal recognizance or unsecured appearance bonds. Evidently, several jails throughout the state had been offering these assistive services to the benefit of inmates. However, the jails were not aware that this practice was against the law! Finding that having in-house Notaries available to meet the needs of defendants is a valuable benefit to the jails and to society, and warranted striking down the old law, the governor signed House Paper 1429 into law.
Read House Paper 1429.