Legislation
State: North Dakota
Signed: March 15, 2023
Effective: August 01, 2023
Chapter: 399
Summary
House Bill 1083 allows Notaries to perform acknowledgments for remotely located individuals on tangible records and provides rules for these “paper remote online notarizations.”
Affects
Amends 44-06.1-13.1 of the North Dakota Century Code.
Changes
- Authorizes a Notary to take an acknowledgment of a signature on a tangible record for a remotely located individual.
- Provides that an acknowledgment on a tangible record for a remotely located individual satisfies the requirement of a Notary reasonably confirming the record before the Notary is the same record in which the remotely located individual made a statement or executed a signature if (a) the remotely located individual during the audiovisual recording signs the record and a declaration, as specified, (b) the Notary records the individual signing the record and declaration in the audiovisual recording, and (c) the Notary after receiving the record executes a certificate of notarial act under NDCC 44-06.1-14 that includes a statement in substantially the following form: "I (name of Notary Public) witnessed, by means of communication technology, (name of remotely located individual) sign the attached record and declaration on (date)."
- Provides that an acknowledgment on a tangible record executed for a remotely located individual that follows the rules complies with the requirement in NDCC 44-06.1-14.1.a and is effective on the date the remotely located individual signed the declaration.
- Clarifies that the rules for the declaration are not the only rules that could satisfy the requirement of a Notary reasonably confirming the record before the Notary is the same record in which the remotely located individual made a statement or executed a signature.
- Authorizes a Notary to use communication technology to administer an oath or affirmation to a remotely located individual, if, except as otherwise provided by another ND law, the Notary (a) identifies the individual under NDCC 44-06.1-13.1.3.a; (b) creates or causes the creation of an audiovisual recording of the individual taking the oath or affirmation; and (c) Retains or causes the retention under 44-06.1-13.1.11 of the recording.
- Authorizes the Secretary of State to adopt rules to prescribe methods for a Notary Public to confirm the record before the Notary is the same record in which the remotely located individual made a statement or executed a signature.
- Makes technical changes.
AnalysisNorth Dakota becomes the latest state to enact so-called “paper remote online notarization” provisions by adopting the 2021 amendments to the Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts. Under the 2021 amendments and this North Dakota new law, a Notary may take an acknowledgment of a signature on a tangible (paper) record. Key to attempting to make this procedure secure, the new law provides that existing North Dakota law which requires the Notary to be satisfied that both the remotely located individual and Notary are signing the same record is satisfied by the remotely located individual signing a declaration under penalty of perjury that essentially provides that the Notary and individual transacted the same record. This doesn’t prove that the tangible record sent to the Notary is the same as the record signed by the remotely located individual, but it does give the Notary a safe harbor for satisfying the requirement. It also doesn’t preclude the Secretary of State from adopting a regulation stipulating other ways this requirement may be satisfied.
Read House Bill 1083.