Indiana Modifies Provisions Regarding Notaries Public
The state of Indiana amended its provisions relating to notaries public that include notarial acts, fees, remote notarial acts and other miscellaneous provisions. This bill becomes effective on July 1, 2019, although per section IC 33-42-17-1, compliance is effective upon the earlier of the Secretary of State adopting implementing rules under IC 33-42-16-2, or July 1, 2020.
The amendment provides that a statement of withdrawal of registration by a registered foreign entity may include an electronic mail address to which service of process may be made and where an electronic mail address is included in the statement of withdrawal, the statement of withdrawal must include a commitment to notify the secretary of state in the future of any change in its electronic mail address. The amendment also provides that for certain filings like articles of conversion; articles of merger or articles of domestication, the provision of an electronic mail address is discretionary.
The amendment strikes the current Uniform Commercial Code financing statement form and provides that a filing office that accepts written documents may not refuse to accept a written document for filing if the document conforms to a format approved by the International Association of Commercial.
The amendment states that October 1, 2019, is the date for a fee increase concerning the indexing of certain documents. The fee for filing and indexing a record other than an initial financing statement is increased from $4 to $12 if the record is communicated in writing. There is no statutory fee if the record is communicated by electronic filing. The fee for filing and indexing an initial financing statement is increased from $8 to $12 if the financing statement indicates that it is filed in connection with a public-finance transaction; or if the financing statement indicates that it is filed in connection with a manufactured-home transaction. The amendment further states that the number of names under which a record must be indexed does not affect the amount of fee described above.
The notary public’s Indiana county is added as a requirement for the authentication certificate of a notarial act and where the notary public is not a resident of Indiana but is primarily employed in Indiana, the Indiana county where the notary public is primarily employed.
The amendment makes some changes to the requirements concerning notary public examination and education and prohibits performance of a notarial act when the notary public’s commission is suspended, revoked or when the notarial act may directly benefit the notary public or the notary public’s spouse.
A notary public is allowed to charge a fee of not more than $10 per for each notarial act performed. However, no fee may be collected for an attestation pertaining to: (i) a birth or death certificate issued by the state of Indiana; (ii) a diploma issued by an academic institution domiciled in Indiana and attested to in a notarial act by the academic institution’s registrar or equivalent official.
The amendment provides for issuance of a certificate of fact for a notary public by the secretary of state on the request of any person. The certificate of fact must state the notary public’s name; county of commission; commission expiration date; and that the notary public’s commission is active.
The amendment specifies that a notary public is eligible to register as a remote notary public if he or she passes a remote notarial act examination administered by the secretary of state and the fee that a notary public may charge for a remote notarial act is increased from $15 to $25. A remote notary who resigns or whose commission expires is required to maintain the contents of his or her electronic journal for at least 10 years. The amendment also provides that the law concerning remote notarial acts is applicable only to a remote notarial acts performed after the earlier of the effective date of certain administrative rules or July 1, 2020.
Rhona Kyeyune, LLM, is a regulatory compliance consultant with CLA. She is a graduate of Makerere University and earned her master of laws at Boston University School of Law.
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