During the pandemic, New York’s notary laws were exposed for what they were—an archaic hold-over that permitted only in-person notarization of paper documents with ink signatures. New York, the world’s commercial capital, had ignored 20 years of technological advances and fallen behind the other 38 states that authorized secure notarization of electronic documents (e-notarization) and allowed notaries to remotely “meet” and accurately identify signers online. New York notarial law, which was also virtually unregulated, had stagnated while an epidemic of paper deed fraud raged.

The necessity of remote notarization became clear during the lockdown. The Governor’s Executive Order 202.7 allowed the use of Zoom to enable remote notarization of client ink-signatures on paper documents (commonly called RIN, short for Remote Ink Notarization). Without the ability to have electronic documents notarized by New York notaries, lawyers used out-of-state notarial companies to notarize electronic documents using online identification procedures (commonly called RON, short for Remote Online Notarization). Authenticated copies were then “papered-out” and could be recorded in New York or easily apostilled for recordation in other countries. RON turned out to be not only startlingly convenient, but also, when done properly, substantially more protective against fraud than traditional in-person notarization of paper documents. Tamper-evident electronic document technology protected against post-signing alteration, and online identification procedures and the audio-visual recording of the signing prevented forgery.

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