VIDEO NOTARY

E-notarization

Arizona law has changed to allow notarizing on video. This is sometimes called webcam notarizing. To be certified to do e-notarizations, notaries pay a fee to the state and pay for an online journal and stamp. However, the fees that notaries can charge signers when they notarize on video has not been increased. As a result, most notaries are not doing it since it is not cost-effective. There are also privacy concerns. I am not doing e-notarizations now.

Remote Online Notarization (RON)

Both signer and notary are on a video conference but the business is owned by large corporations who operate “platforms”. These corporations have lobbied for a massive change in notary law and practice in every state and they succeeded.

What changed?

Every state has their own unique notary laws. In the past notaries could only notarize documents in their own state. Your notary knew the state notary laws and this is still the case for mobile notaries. But the platforms can and do hire out of state notaries to notarize documents for AZ residents. In fact, the major platforms will only use out of state notaries. They choose states with the fewest requirements and the lowest pay. The largest platforms will not hire AZ notaries to notarize AZ documents.

Lack of Privacy

Even worse, Arizona law doesn’t prohibit the platforms from selling your personal information. The platforms own your video and all the information provided and they can keep them forever. It is their property. In California, notary Matt Miller was able to convince legislators to propose a bill which says that only CA notaries can notarize documents in CA. It also prohibits platforms from selling signers’ information and provide penalties if they do. Unfortunately the author of the bill pulled it before it could go to a vote and the bill is dead. Matt is trying to get another legislator to write a bill. Arizona residents need that protection. The bill, AB1093, would have hampered the way the platforms intend to do business so possibly their lobbyists were at work there .

How RON works

Notaries pay a yearly fee to the platform company. They also pay for an online journal, an electronic stamp, etc. The platforms provide the signers. Notaries can’t use the platform for their own customers although one very small platform is allowing that (this is called a hybrid platform). Title companies and signing companies.send their signings to the various platforms. The signings are mostly real estate purchases, sales, and refinances. Since the platforms are paying notaries very little, they can charge title and signing companies less than mobile notaries can. This puts many mobile notaries out of business. Signers will have a harder time finding a mobile notary when they need one.

What You Can Do

Write to your state legislators. Say that you want similar protections as California AB 1092. State your concerns about privacy. Ask them to require the platforms to use AZ notaries for AZ signings. I wrote to my 3 state legislators and got no reply at all. It takes a lot of people writing in to get any attention on an issue. To find your state legislators go to https://www.azleg.gov/findmylegislator/

More info

Info on notary is on the Home Page at https://www.tucsonnotarypro.com and on the FAQ page at https://www.tucsonnotarypro.com/faq-notary-documents/ More info on the California law is at California League of Independent Notaries https://www.calnotaries.org

Sue Simmons is an Arizona mobile notary public. Questions or comments? Call Sue at 520-373-7715 or email sue@tucsonnotarypro.com