Wisconsin Emergency Guidance Allows Remote Notarization During Coronavirus Crisis
Attorney Thomas B. Burton discusses the Emergency Guidance issued by the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions which allows for remote notarizations, conducted via live video appearance until further notice to be given once the current Coronavirus crisis abates. Attorney Burton discusses this breaking development in Wisconsin law, which allows for remote notarization in the state of Wisconsin as of March 18, 2020. Attorney Burton also discusses Wisconsin Act 125, which is scheduled to become effective onMay 1, 2020, and which will allow certain documents to be notarized remotely in Wisconsin, and discusses how the current Coronavirus pandemic prompted the Department of Financial Institutions to issue emergency guidance allowing remote notarizations even before the effective date of Wisconsin Act 125.
Emergency Guidance from Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions on Remote Notarization
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Transcript of Video: Wisconsin Allows Remote Notarization During Coronavirus Pandemic
Friends family fellow Wisconsinites.
Today I wanted to shoot a brief video and
give you an update about some late-breaking
news in the legal world as of Friday.
So many people are familiar with notarizing
a document and traditionally you had to appear
physically before the notary public in order
to get that notary stamp on the document.
And in the legal world the financial world
the real estate world, this is a big.
Part of many documents you're signing for
instance a deed unless you sign it in front
of an attorney, it has to be notarized in
the state of Wisconsin in order to be recorded.
So for many real estate transactions there
the deed for sure needs to be notarized and other
documents as well.
So on Wednesday of last week the state of
Wisconsin issued emergency guidelines authorizing
remote notarization in the state of Wisconsin
and they put out this guidance here from the
Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions
Now basically as I said, historically in Wisconsin,
you always had to appear physically before
the notary.
However, Wisconsin had been moving towards
remote organization, in fact the beginning
of March Governor
Evers signed
Wisconsin legislation authorizing remote organization
in certain instances.
However, the it was Wisconsin Act 125, but
it wasn't supposed to go into effect until
May 1st.
So now during this coronavirus epidemic,
as you know, we're witnessing bank lobbies
are closed and traditionally a bank was
often the place you could go if you needed
a document notarized and you didn't know where
else to go but right now the bank lobbies
are closed.
Also depending on states around us many businesses
are closed so you can't physically go appear
appear in front of that notary.
Further they encouraging social distancing
so we really don't want people to have to
go to the same room to get that notarization.
So what the Wisconsin Department of Financial
Institutions has done and they're the folks
that govern the notaries in the state of
Wisconsin.
So the Secretary of State issues your license
to act as a notary when I got my notary commission
I should say it was from the Secretary of
State, but the Department of Financial Institutions
is really in charge of managing it all.
So they put out emergency legal guidance on
March 18th from the legal counsel and they're
saying that during
this coronavirus crisis, they're going to
allow remote notarization to occur.
So it says the key takeaway here is therefore
until further notice to be given once this
crisis abates
for documents requiring notarization, the
Department will construe the statutory terms
appear before and presence to include appearances
by remote live video and audio connection.
So that's the key in the law, we always define
the term appear to mean physically present
and they're saying they're going to construe
it to include remote notarizations during this
time.
So what does this mean?
So we're in this period where we had passed
the law but it wasn't supposed to go into
effect until May 1st.
So the Department is basically saying they're
going to allow these notarizations during
the coronavirus crisis because so far no
one in Wisconsin had gotten set up to do the
remote notarizations because May 1st was
the effective date.
So other states have already adopted remote
notary laws.
In fact, one of the first was Virginia in
Virginia has been doing it for a few years.
So what you can do during this time is you
can use a notary licensed in another state
that allows remote notarization and you can appear
before them via live video chat like this
and do the notarization.
They will do the notarization for you.
And under the Wisconsin Constitution, each
state recognizes the laws of each other.
And in fact Wisconsin has a statute 706.07(4)(a) that says notarial acts
performed by an out-of-state notary public
have the same effect under the law as if performed
by an in-state one.
So what that means is if you have a Wisconsin
legal document or Wisconsin deed or document
that needs a notary seal.
Traditionally, you would usually notarize
it here in Wisconsin.
However, even in the past
If you had something like a Wisconsin deed and
let's say you were in Florida and needed to
sign the deed they would send it down to you
in Florida and you would go appear before
a Florida notary public
Sign it there in front of the notary public
and send it back.