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Get Your Bearings Under New Notary Law
PLTA
On July 1, 2003 Act 151 of 2003 will go into effect, amending the existing Notary Public Law to include some significant changes,especially with regard to newly-authorized electronic recording.However, most notaries are more interested in the other practical implications of the new law:“Section 5. Application to become a Notary Public
As a condition for the secretary of the Commonwealth’s issuance of a notary commission to an applicant not appointed to the office of notary public as of the effective date of this subsection, a notary applicant must complete at least three (3) hours of approved notary
education within the six (6) month period immediately preceding their application. Section 6. Application for Reappointment Applications for reappointment to the office of notary public shall be filed at least two months prior to the expiration of the commission under which the notary is acting. Persons seeking reappointment must continue to meet the requirements set forth in section 5 in order
to be reappointed.” (Emphasis added) Clearly, three hours of education must be taken in the six months immediately prior to the application to become a notary, so you
cannot take the course within any other time frame if you are making application to become a notary. However, if you are applying for reappointment, you must make that application at least two months before expiration of your commission. So by one reading, if education is needed prior to your application, you could take the required three-hour course within at least eight months prior to
expiration of commission. One could argue that the door has been left open to interpret the appropriate length of time prior to expiration that a notary could make
application for reappointment. We will have to wait and see how the Secretary of State’s office interprets this section. (The Department of State has a detailed explanation of the entire new notary public law
listed on its website: www.dos.state.pa.us.)
The three hours of education will only be needed once every four years, once you are a notary. This education can be classroom education or interactive, with no testing required, and it has to be administered by a provider authorized by the Office of the Secretary of State.
Under Section 8 of the new law, those people making application or reapplication after July 1, 2003 must post a $10,000 bond, up from the prior requirement of $3,000. Section 8 also authorizes the notary to register the notary’s electronic signature in the Prothonotary’s office.
The law no longer requires the use of an embossing seal, although the notary may use the embossing seal, if desired.
The new law continues the requirement that the notary maintain a register of all notarial acts, and adds more specific requirements as to the format of the registry and the need to surrender the registry to the Recorder of Deeds upon the death, resignation, disqualification,
revocation or expiration of license of a notary. Section 16 of the new law adds verifications to the powers of a
notary. Only sworn verifications have to be notarized, but unsworn verifications may be notarized. Directors and Officers of Corporations were prohibited under the old law from notarizing transactions for the corporation. Section 19 of the new law will allow this if there is no direct pecuniary interest of the notary in the transaction.
Section 12.1 establishes the requirements of personal knowledge and satisfactory evidence of identity of the person before you, the notary. Basically, that means you have to know the person yourself, or you must have a credible witness (someone personally known to you)
who swears to or affirms the identity of someone who is not known to you, or you must have satisfactory identification: government ID with a serial or other ID number, and at least one of the following:
• Photograph
• Signature
• Physical description
It is your responsibility to insure that you are comfortable with your decision to notarize or not. You are never required to notarize and, in fact, you are the one on the hook for a bad decision. The new law has some teeth, in the sense that the Secretary of State has the
authority to revoke a notary commission, impose a penalty of up to $500 and also order remedial education for infractions of the notary law. (taken from PLTA's magazine Common Ground) For more information, please contact the Pennsylvania Association of Notaries (PAN) 412-281-0678.
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