Electronic notarization and penalties

Study notes · 50 practice questions · 30 in the mock pool

Registering and where you may act

• Electronic acts require a separate registration with the Secretary of State and a further $60.
• The notary must be physically located within New York for every act, regardless of where the signer is.
• No process or device may disguise that location, and location detection may not be disabled.
• Registration details must be updated before performing any further electronic act.

Technology standards

• A reliable electronic signature: unique to the notary, attached by a PKI digital certificate capable of independent verification, under sole control, and linked so alterations are detectable.
• Communication technology must allow simultaneous sight and sound, live, throughout the act, and capture both sides of an identification card.
• The signal must be secure from interception, and the reproduction process must leave a record of any change.
• The remote certificate must state that the person appeared using communication technology.

Identity

• In person: a government card (front and back), two current signed documents, personal knowledge, one credible witness known to both, or two identified witnesses.
• Remotely, for a signer not personally known: identity verification plus credential analysis plus identity proofing — all three.
• Credential analysis is performed by a third-party provider; identity proofing must meet at least NIST IAL2.
• An electronic notary's attestation of personal knowledge is satisfactory evidence on its own.

Records and penalties

• The audio-video recording and the supporting records are both kept at least ten years, and the recording excludes personally identifiable information.
• All notaries — not only electronic ones — must keep contemporaneous records of each act.
• Forgery in the second degree is a class D felony; issuing a false certificate a class E felony; official misconduct a class A misdemeanor.
• Unauthorised practice of law under Judiciary Law 484 is a misdemeanor under 485, and may be punished as criminal contempt under 750.