International Section Advisor: Todd Kocourek

This month, the NNA’s International Section reported on why mortgage fraud in Canada is hitting record levels, the new U.K. agency in charge of screening identities at border crossings and the increase in overseas assignments for employees of international firms. To deliver this level of industry-specific information to Notaries, the NNA has developed a distinguished Advisory Panel for each of its six Professional Sections. In this Advisor Spotlight, we introduce you to International Section Advisor Todd Kocourek.

A Founding Trustee of the National Association of Civil Law Notaries (NACLN), attorney Todd Kocourek was instrumental in developing the Civil Law Notary system in Florida to help resolve issues with documents sent between Florida and foreign countries. Kocourek himself served as one of Florida’s first Civil Law Notaries, and in 2003 was honored with the NNA’s March Fong Eu Achievement Award for pioneering this new type of international notarial office in the state.

Kocourek is a former chair of the Florida Bar’s International Law Section and the Florida Chamber of Commerce’s International Business Committee. He also served on the Board of Directors of the Florida Economic Development Council from 2003-2011.

David Thun is an Associate Editor at the National Notary Association.

4 Comments

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Carmen M Alvarez

17 Sep 2021

Does the KBA and/or the Identity Verification process we use here in the USA have information for foreign nationals trying to get a remote online notarization? The verbiage everywhere is "government issued" ID but which government are we talking about... USA or ANY government issued ID? How are we supposed to know what to look for in foreign ID's? THX

National Notary Association

Hello. To help us answer your question, can you please tell us what state you are commissioned in?

I am located in the state of Florida.

20 Sep 2021

Hello. Florida law regarding use of credential analysis and KBA for remote notarizations states the following: Credential Analysis: “Use of credential analysis using one or more commercially available automated software or hardware processes that are consistent with sound commercial practices; that aid the notary public in verifying the authenticity of the credential by analyzing the integrity of visual, physical, or cryptographic security features to indicate that the credential is not fraudulent or inappropriately modified; and that use information held or published by the issuing source or authoritative source, as available, to confirm the validity of credential details. The output of the credential analysis process must be provided to the online notary public performing the notarial act” (FS 117.295[3]b]). KBA: “Use of identity proofing by means of knowledge-based authentication which must have, at a minimum, the following security characteristics: “1. The principal must be presented with five or more questions with a minimum of five possible answer choices per question. “2. Each question must be drawn from a third-party provider of public and proprietary data sources and be identifiable to the principal's social security number or other identification information, or the principal's identity and historical events records. “3. Responses to all questions must be made within a 2- minute time constraint. “4. The principal must answer a minimum of 80 percent of the questions correctly. “5. The principal may be offered one additional attempt in the event of a failed attempt. “6. During the second attempt, the principal may not be presented with more than three questions from the prior attempt” (FS 117.295[3][a])." Florida Notary law states that Notaries may accept the following forms of ID for a notarization, if the document is current or has been issued within the past 5 years and bears a serial or other identifying number: “a. A Florida identification card or driver’s license issued by the public agency authorized to issue driver’s licenses; “b. A passport issued by the Department of State of the United States; “c. A passport issued by a foreign government if the document is stamped by the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (sic); “d. A driver’s license or an identification card issued by a public agency authorized to issue driver’s licenses in a state other than Florida or in a territory of the United States, or Canada or Mexico; “e. An identification card issued by any branch of the armed forces of the United States; “f. A veteran health identification card issued by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs; “g. An inmate identification card issued on or after January 1, 1991, by the Florida Department of Corrections for an inmate who is in the custody of the department; “h. An inmate identification card issued by the United States Department of Justice, Bureau of Federal Prisons, for an inmate who is in the custody of the department; “i. A sworn, written statement from a sworn law enforcement officer that the forms of identification for an inmate in an institution of confinement were confiscated upon confinement and that the person named in the document is the person whose signature is to be notarized; or “j. An identification card issued by the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (sic)” (FS 117.05[5]).

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