Remote Online Notarization Legality Guide: Wisconsin

Background

On March 3, 2020, the governor signed Assembly Bill 293, permanently authorizing notaries public commissioned in the state to remotely notarize electronic documents as of May 1, 2020.

Wisconsin remote online notarization laws:

• Assembly Bill 293 (2019 WISCONSIN ACT 125)

• Chapter 140

Additional resources for notaries public commissioned in Wisconsin:

• Department of Financial Institutions Website
• Notary Public Information
• Guidance for Notaries Seeking to Perform Remote Online Notarial Acts
• BlueNotary: How to Become an Online Notary in Wisconsin

Legislative comments:

Assembly Bill 293 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 more than 19 states.