Remote Online Notarization Legality Guide: North Dakota

Background

On March 8th, 2019, the governor signed House Bill 1110, permanently authorizing notaries public commissioned in the state to remotely notarize electronic documents as of August 1, 2019.

North Dakota remote online notarization laws:

• House Bill 1110

• N.D.C.C § 44-06.1-13.1

Additional resources for notaries public commissioned in North Dakota: 

• Secretary of State website

• RON Information Page​​

Legislative comments: 

House Bill 1110 enacts the Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts (RULONA), which is a model law drafted by the Uniform Law Commission to govern a notary’s authority to perform notarial acts.

Information About RULONA 

As of the publication of this article, Uniform Law Commission have adopted RULONA as their permanent form of RON legislation.

The Uniform Law Commission (the “ULC,” established in 1892 to provide states with non-partisan, well-conceived and well-drafted legislation that brings clarity and stability to critical areas of state statutory law) published the Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts of 2018 (“RULONA”) for states to adopt and enable RON in their state. RULONA updates the ULC’s previously approved Uniform Law on Notarial Acts of 2010 (the “2010 ULONA,” which in turn was an update to the 1982 Uniform Law on Notarial Acts).

RULONA sought to update 2010 ULONA to reflect numerous societal and technological changes, including the need for remote electronic transactions and the need to further promote uniformity among the states with regard to their laws governing notarial acts. RULONA implements structural and operational rules for those notarial acts that often were inconsistent or absent in prior state laws. RULONA provides certainty in the process of performing notarial acts regardless of whether: (i) the notarial act is completed on a tangible or an electronic record, and (ii) the signer appears before the notary physically or via audio-visual technology. As of this writing, RULONA has served as the template for RON laws in 19+ states.