Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes presented the updated electronic and remote notary laws to the Commonwealth’s lawyers at the Kentucky Bar Association’s annual convention Thursday in Louisville.
Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes presents updates to the notary law at KBA convention in Louisville (provided photo).
The new law, championed by Grimes and Senator Morgan McGarvey (D-Louisville), reforms Kentucky’s recording and notary laws by allowing county clerks the ability to record real estate deeds, mortgages and other documents electronically. Notaries public will also be able to notarize documents electronically and remotely via audio visual technology.
“It took five years for us to update Kentucky’s antiquated notary laws,” said Grimes, the Commonwealth’s Chief Business Official. “Kentucky is leading the nation in reshaping notarial acts to help businesses succeed and our economy grow. Kentucky’s lawyers are on the front lines of this issue and have seen first-hand the implications of such out of date practices. My hope is that this much needed reform makes it easier to interact with government and allows Kentuckians to spend more time doing business.”
The reforms are a welcome update for lawyers and businesses alike in Kentucky.
“Secretary of State Alison Grimes and her staff played a significant role in the creation and support of a task force to address stakeholder concerns and issues,” said attorney Mina Khalil in a Stites Harbison client newsletter. “Because Kentucky’s antiquated notary laws were confusing and generally ineffective in discouraging fraud and misconduct, this statutory renovation was desperately needed, and should increase confidence and reduce risk in real estate transactions.”
This is one in the long line of successful reforms that Grimes has made to the Business Office.
Senator McGarvey, who sponsored the legislation, said, “Secretary Grimes’ exhaustive work on this policy both nationally and in the Commonwealth yielded a bipartisan, comprehensive bill which supports transactional security, the privacy of document signers, and the centuries-old assurances of the notarial act.”
Senate Bill 114 passed in the 2019 Kentucky General Assembly and will go into effect in January 2020.
Office of the Secretary of state
