Missouri senators have proposed updates to the state’s laws for public notaries, and Secretary of State John “Jay” Ashcroft said changes would make transactions easier.
“Notary laws have not been updated for a long time,” Ashcroft said last week when he testified for informational purposes before the Senate’s Local Government and Elections Committee hearing on Senate bills 578 and 593.
Notary publics are officials authorized to do things including to take acknowledgments, administer oaths and affirmations, as well as certify a copy of a document is a true copy.
Several pieces of the state’s notary laws have not been changed since becoming effective in 1978, and Ashcroft wants to incorporate electronic remote notary services into the law.
Sen. Sandy Crawford, R-Buffalo, filed SB 578, which would create procedures for remote online notarization.
Sen. Bill White, R-Joplin, filed SB 593, which would more broadly overhaul the state’s notary public laws, including to allow for remote online notarization.
“We have a lot of corporate headquarters, Fortune 500 and others, in the state, and not being able to do an online notary is becoming a hindrance to business being conducted in the state,” White said, adding business is being done with parties on both the East and West coasts of the country.
As of July 2019, many other states had already passed remote online notary laws, including Iowa and Tennessee, according to the American Bar Association.
Under White’s bill, notaries would have to register with the secretary of state to perform electronic notarial acts. Only acknowledgments (legal affirmations of truth) and jurats (statements or certifications added to affidavits) would be able to be performed remotely and electronically.
The secretary of state would have to approve the remote notarization software to be used so it would meet certain standards, and electronic notaries would also have to complete a secretary-approved instruction course in addition to the one required for commissioning as a notary.
Remote electronic notarization would be allowed if an electronic notary was in the live audio-video conferencing presence of the person whose signature was being notarized or whose oath or affirmation was being taken, along with meeting other requirements.
Another consumer-end difference people utilizing the services of a notary might notice under SB 593 would be an increase in fees for notary services.
Under current law, getting a signature notarized costs a maximum of $2. Getting a copy of a document certified costs a maximum of $2 per standard-sized page, and the maximum fee for any other notarial act performed is $1.
In SB 593, acknowledgments would cost $5 per signature; jurats, $5 per signature; signature witnessing, $5 per signature; copy certification, $1 per page, with a minimum total charge of $3. The same fee structure would apply for electronic acknowledgment, jurat and signature witnessing acts.
There is a penalty in the bill for a notary that charges more than the limits for fees.
Current law also prohibits notaries from falsely advertising themselves as capable of giving legal advice they’re otherwise not authorized to give.
A proposed update in SB 593 specifically prohibits a notary who’s not an attorney from claiming they can offer legal counsel on immigration issues, and any notary that is not an attorney and that advertises notarial services in a language other than English would have to “prominently” include on their advertisements, notices, letterheads and signs in the same non-English language that “I am not an attorney and have no authority to give advice on immigration or other legal matters.”
Notaries would also be barred from using the term “notario publico” or any non-English equivalent on their business cards, advertisements, notices or signs.
That language refers to scams where notaries not qualified to give legal advice on immigration issues advertise otherwise, then demand large fees from their clients and either don’t do the work or give incorrect advice, according to a consumer pamphlet from The Florida Bar.
The Missouri Attorney General’s Office told St. Louis Public Radio in September 2018 that there were no records of such notario fraud cases in the state.
Proposed changes to becoming a notary
From the perspective of a notary, the updates in SB 593 would also affect how to become and remain in their position, especially if disciplinary action is brought against them.
Notaries serve for four years upon receiving their commission from the secretary of state, and their commissions can be renewed.
Currently, notaries must be a registered voter of and have a residence in the county within and for which they are commissioned, among other requirements.
SB 593 would change the residencey requirements to just require residing or having a regular place of work or business in Missouri and being a legal resident of the United States.
Notary applicants who are not Missouri residents would be able to continue to qualify, as now, by working in Missouri and using the notary seal in the course of their employment in Missouri.
SB 593 would also require a score of 80 percent or better on a pre-commission examination. Current law stipulates notary applicants must attest to reading the Missouri notary public handbook and completing a training course, but there’s no specific stipulation beyond that about a certain score.
Notary applicants who are rejected and notaries removed by their commissions for disciplinary reasons currently are entitled to a hearing, adjudication and appeal, though there’s not much more detail about that process.
SB 593 more specifically states applicants would have 30 days to appeal following a denial of their application, unless the secretary of state has already denied an application or revoked a commission for disciplinary reasons in the past five years, in which case an applicant couldn’t appeal.
“The electronic remote (capability) is the contentious issue kind of between everybody,” White said, adding the rest of the proposed revisions to notary law have prompted little discussion.
Since the committee meeting, surety stakeholders had delivered a sentence more of suggested language, he said.
White expected there will be a committee substitute for the bill that will “basically make Sen. Crawford’s bill and my bill look the same,” though he wasn’t sure if that would mean both bills would go forward through the legislative process separately or be combined into one — “it’s really whatever Sen. Crawford’s comfortable with; I’m good with it either way.”
Crawford is the chairwoman of the Senate’s Local Government and Elections Committee.
Ashcroft added his office has the rule-making authority to update notary laws, but he wants to involve the Legislature.
He said in testimony on Crawford’s bill that the Senate had unanimously passed a version three years ago.
Representatives of Missouri mortgage and bankers associations were among those who testified in support of both bills last week.