MN House File 2656

Legislation

State: Minnesota
Signed: June 01, 2006

Effective: July 01, 2006
Chapter: 260

Summary

House Bill 2656 incorporates provisions for electronic notarization into Minnesota's Uniform Law on Notarial Acts (ULONA).

Affects

Amends Minnesota Statutes (MS) 358.41, 358.42, 358.47, 358.50, 359.05, 359.085, adds a new subdivision 5 to MS 359.01, adds a new subdivision 4 to MS 359.03 and adds a new subdivision 8 to MS 359.085

Changes

Authorizes Notaries to perform a notarial act by electronic means.
Requires Notaries to register the capability to notarize electronically with the Secretary of State prior to performing electronic notarizations and to reregister after recommissioning.
Adds definitions of “electronic record” and “electronic signature” taken verbatim from the state’s Uniform Electronic Transactions Act.
Permits Notaries to certify or attest a copy of an electronic record.
Expressly prohibits Notaries from notarizing the physical or electronic signature of any signer who is not in the Notary’s presence at the time of notarization.
Authorizes Notaries to use an electronic Notary seal and specifies that the Notary’s electronic seal must contain the Notary’s name, jurisdiction, commission expiration date, and must be securely affixed with the electronic record being notarized.
Clarifies that a paper or electronic notarial act must be evidenced by a certificate physically or electronically signed by the Notary in a manner that attributes such signature to the Notary identified on the official commission.
Requires Notaries to affix by electronic means the Notary’s name and commission expiration date to every certificate of acknowledgment or jurat electronically signed by the Notary.
Establishes that an acknowledgment made in a representative capacity is prima facie evidence that the instrument or electronic record was executed and delivered with proper authority.

Analysis

House Bill 2656 is the first attempt to incorporate provisions for electronic notarization into the Uniform Law on Notarial Acts (ULONA) originally published in 1982 by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws and adopted in whole or in part by 13 states. The new changes and statutory language were recommended by the NNA to Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer, who solicited the NNA’s assistance in modernizing Minnesota’s Notary laws to allow eNotarization. The revisions adopted in Minnesota could be used as a model for the NNA’s legislative efforts in the other states that have adopted the ULONA, especially in circumstances where a state wishes to retain ULONA provisions but “tweak” them to enable eNotarization.

Read the bill text.