Legislation
State: Kansas
Signed: June 08, 2020
Effective: June 08, 2020
Chapter: 1 (2020 Special Session)
Summary
House Bill 2016 validates notarial act performed under the Governor’s executive order suspending the requirement to appear physically before a Notary in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
AffectsNotarial acts performed under the Governor’s executive order during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Changes
- Clarifies that all notarial acts performed by a Kansas Notary while the requirement that a person must appear before a Notary are suspended pursuant to an executive order or other state law, shall be valid as if the individual had appeared before the Notary.
- Provides that for a notarial act to be recognized as valid, the notarial act must meet all requirements prescribed by the executive order or other state law authorizing it and all requirements prescribed by law that do not relate to appearance before the Notary.
AnalysisWith many governors issuing executive orders to temporarily allow so-called “remote ink signed notarizations” (RIN) to be performed during the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been voices who are concerned that these notarizations may be subject to challenge in the future. Enacting a “validation” clause or provision is one way to ward off problems that may arise with a notarial act later. Validation clauses typically deal with “defects” with notarized documents such as imperfect seal impressions and other irregularities. This is what House Bill 2016 does. It places in statute a specific provision to validate or approve of these notarizations so they will be less likely to be subject to challenge later. Here, the irregularity is the suspension of the requirement for document signers to appear physically before a Notary.
Read House Bill 2016 (see page 8).