Are you compliant yet?

On October 26, 2017, the new notary law, RULONA (Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts), became effective. Its enactment has changed the way notaries fulfill their notarial duties.

These changes were instituted for notary acts:

• New notary act - witnessing or attesting a signature
• New and shorter wording for individual acknowledgment, certified or attested copy or deposition, and oath or affirmation
  • Older versions of notary wording are still viable for use on documents
• What was known as an affidvait is now a verification on oath or affirmation

The notary journal replaced the register and makes the recording of new entries much eastier. The new entries are:

• Date and time of the notary act
• Document description
• Clerical and/or administrative fees
• Customer name and address (city and state only)
• Identification method (personal knowledge, acceptable ID or credible witness)
  • Identification details (if acceptable ID is used, the type of ID and the dates of issuance and expiration (if any) of the identification used) and if credible witness is used, their name and address is required)

Notaries who continue to use their ntoary registers must include the new required entries. PAN has created a Notary Journal tutorial that explains how to revise registers to include the new entries. Upon reappointment, notaries should purchase a RULONA-compliant journal no matter how many entries are left in their registers.

If you charge clerical or administrative fees, you must include them in your journal. If you charge your customer a notary fee and/or clerical and administrative fees, you must provide your customer with an itemized receipt.

The law provides a list of state-approved identification that notaries can accept from customers they do not know personally.

All first-time and renewing notaries must take three hours of notary education, either a live seminar or online course, to fulfill the education requirement. All first-time notaries are required to take the Pearson VUE notary exam. Renewing notaries are required to take the notary exam only if they have a laps in their commissions, even one day.

The notary stamp has also changed. However, you may continue to use your current notary stamp until you renew your commission.

If you have any questions about the notary law, please call PAN's Customer Service Department at 1-800-944-8790 Monday-Friday 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., visit our Live Chat on our Web site at www.notary.org or send us an E-mail at [email protected].