Are webcam notarizations legal in my state
As of 2011 & 2012, webcam notarizations are not legal in any state. The California Secretary of State even went so far as to make an official posting on their California notary division website to specifically state that it is illegal to do webcam notarizations in California and that there was a company who engaged in this illegal notarization practice. This illegal notarization technique was used for signings in New Jersey by the company in question. I have not heard if those individuals doign these webcam notarizations have been arrested or what. We actually advertise them on our website, but post information stating that their webcam notarizations are illegal in California and other states.
As a customer for notary services, it is your responsibility to have some basic idea about notary law, and you need to know what is illegal in this business. Any notary job that lacks personal appearance from the signer is an illegal notarization except for a proof of execution.
If you want to look up your state’s notary laws, each state has a notary division website where you can look up specific notary laws particular to your state. It might be hard to sort through and the legalese is not easy to read, but you can learn a lot in a short amount of time by reading through state notary division websites.
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I ran across another one of these websites based in Virginia. They advertise that it is legal in Virginia and any notarization that they dod is legal in all 50 staes. That all you need is a webcam. This is very misleading. I know for a fact that any notarization done without the personal prescenxe of the signer is illegal in the state of Georgia. However, for the customer looking for notarization, this seems like an easy way to do it and will not know until it is too late that it is illegal. Websites like those make it hard for notaries who follow the law to get clients and customers.
Comment by Laurie Watkins — July 10, 2012 @ 11:21 am
Online and webcam notarization is illegal simply to protect the outdated customs of those called notaries. They have a good lobby and many lawyers are also notaries. Mob Rules public loses.
Comment by Moose — May 6, 2015 @ 8:36 pm