CHAPTER 11. MODIFICATION OF PRESENCE REQUIREMENT FOR

NOTARY FUNCTIONS PERFORMED DURING 2020 COVID-19

PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY

§701. Purpose; ratification

            A. The legislature finds that the COVID-19 public health emergency created a statewide emergency disrupting the ability of notaries public to be in the physical presence of persons whose signatures the notary public was authenticating. This Chapter is enacted for the benefit and protection of the state as a whole and its citizens, to prevent injustice, inequity, undue hardship, and disruption of transactions to persons relying on the authentication of signatures of persons not in the physical presence of a notary public by a notary public who authenticated the signature through electronic means using audio-video communication. Therefore, this Chapter shall be liberally construed to effect its purposes.

            B. The action of the governor of this state in issuing Section 6 of Proclamation Number 37 JBE 2020 and Part C of Section 5 of Proclamation Number 41 JBE 2020 is hereby approved, ratified, and confirmed subject to the provisions of this Chapter.

            Acts 2020, No. 131, §1, eff. June 9, 2020.

            NOTE: See Acts 2020, No. 131, §3, regarding retroactive application of the Act.