AnalysisTennessee adopts the Uniform Real Property Electronic Recording Act, adding definitions for “digitized image” and “wet signature” (the first definition for a term that is usually used colloquially for a signature made with pen and ink). Interestingly, Tennessee’s URPERA makes a distinction between an “electronic signature” and a “digitized image of a wet signature,” but this distinction may not be meaningful because an “electronic signature” as defined under the URPERA would encompass such a signature.
Perhaps the most innovative part of this new law is what may be the first enactment of a law authorizing a Notary to perform an electronic copy certification. The electronic copy may be an entirely electronic document or a paper document that has been converted to electronic form (digitized). Also interesting is the definition of a “digitized document,” which requires a paper-converted-to-electronic document to accurately depict the information in the paper document and to be “unalterable.” The law does not indicate how the document becomes “unalterable,” but a Notary using an Electronic Notary Seal to certify the copy could encrypt the digitized document so that any changes made to the document after it was copy-certified would be immediately detectable.
Read Senate Bill 317.