Manatt Financial Services Partners Brett Natarelli and Bryan Schneider, and Manatt Financial Services Associate Madelaine Newcomb wrote an article for Law360 on Illinois’ new electronic and remote notary law, which facilitates notaries in taking acknowledgments and jurats electronically, remotely or with a paper output.
The new law is the result of a task force that analyzed the best of other states’ existing models and is significant because provisions allowing for remote notarization of a nonelectronic paper document are still unusual even though Illinois provides for them. The act, according to the article, comes after a huge increase in industry interest in electronic and remote notarizations because of the pandemic lockdowns. “Illinois' new law appears to be among the most flexible in the U.S. with provisions for remotely notarizing paper documents, remotely notarizing electronic documents, and notarial certification of paper copies of electronically created documents,” the authors stated. “Because Illinois is a large state and because the act was the result of a task force effort to closely study these matters over a period of years, we expect Illinois' new notary law to be influential in the remaining states still looking at their own versions of permanent legislation.”
Law360 subscribers can read the full article here.