Remote Online Notarization Legality Guide: Arizona

Background

On March 18, 2021, the governor signed Senate Bill 1115, permanently authorizing remote notaries public commissioned in the state to remotely notarize electronic documents as of June 30, 2022.

Arizona remote online notarization laws: 

• Senate Bill 1115

Additional resources for notaries public commissioned in Arizona: 

• Secretary of State website
• Electronic Commission Application
• BlueNotary: How to Become an Online Notary in Arizona

Legislative comments:Senate Bill 1115 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, the Uniform Law Commission (ULC) has adopted the Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts (RULONA) as the permanent framework for Remote Online Notarization (RON) legislation.

The ULC, established in 1892 to provide states with well-crafted, non-partisan legislation to enhance clarity and stability in state laws, introduced RULONA in 2018. This updated version of the Uniform Law on Notarial Acts (ULONA) was designed to allow states to adopt RON and modernize their notarial laws. RULONA builds on the previous 2010 version of ULONA, which itself was an update to the 1982 Uniform Law on Notarial Acts.

RULONA was developed to address a range of societal and technological changes, including the growing need for remote electronic transactions. It also aims to enhance consistency across states in the regulation of notarial acts. The law establishes clear rules for notarial practices that were either inconsistent or lacking in previous state laws. RULONA provides a reliable framework for performing notarial acts, whether the act involves a tangible or electronic record, and whether the signer appears physically or through audio-visual technology. As of now, RULONA has been adopted as the foundation for RON legislation in 19+ states.