What are the types of Notaries: Mobile, Electronic and RON!

It seems like it’s a talk of a past life when you had to visit a store or shop to get something. Now, you just need to move your fingers on your nifty cellphone, and ta-da, get anything you want in a jiffy..

If our ancestors witnessed this, they would think it’s some kind of witchcraft. That’s the power of digitization! It made everything so convenient for us.

In the same way, digitization has also affected traditional notarization ways in the past few years. Those days are long gone when people used to waste hours visiting notaries and going through all the struggle to get a document notarized. However, most people still get confused with terms like Mobile, Electronic notary, and Remote Notaries. Well, if you are one of these. Don’t worry; we will try to resolve this puzzle for you.

We will break down terms, Electronic Notary, mobile notary, and remote online Notary to give you a clear picture of the different types of Notarization techniques.

What is a Notary?

A notary public is a person who is permitted by the state to notarize the documents related to real estate, financial dealings, deeds, Licenses, etc., A notary public deals with documents associated with both personal and business motives. The role of a Notary public is to;

• Verify the signer’s identity
• Ensure if the signer knows the purpose of the document
• Check if the signer is not signing the document under some person’s or other party’s pressure.

A notary public also administers oaths, affirmations, affidavits, and statutory declarations.
Note:

• The role and duties of a notary public are entirely different from an attorney.
• A notary public is a common-law notary, and an attorney is a civil law notary.
• An attorney passes the Bar exam to qualify as a legal attorney. In contrast, a notary public doesn’t need an exam to qualify as a notary.

If you want to become a legal notary, then let us tell you that every state has different criteria to allow someone to act as a legal notary. Most states like Florida demand an individual complete a unique notary course to qualify as a legal notary.

Also Read: What Documents Need To Be Notarized?

Types of Notaries

Mobile Notary

Mobile Notary is somewhat the same as a Traditional notary Service as the mobile Notary uses no technical means to finalize the transaction. The difference lies in the comfort level that it offers to the customer.

As the name indicates, a mobile Notary is a notary public that visits at your selected place, your chosen day and your desired time to notarize your documents. You can gather all the parties in a room and fix a meeting with the notary public to carry out notarization.

Usually, the notary public has fixed notarization charges, but the travel charges will depend on where you reside and how far is it from the Notary’s location.

E Notary

E Notary is a notary public who notarizes the document in-person, just like a mobile notary and traditional Notary does. However, here the difference lies in the use of technology by the notary public to complete the notarization. It is also called in-person electronic notarization. The Notary will use;

• Tablet or laptop instead of paper
• eSeal instead of stamp
• Electronic signature instead of an ink signature

Once the notarization is completed, the notary public applies a secure public key to seal the documents in a word or pdf file form. You can clearly see it is safer than traditional notary services. These electronically secured papers are tamper-proof, so none will be able to make any illegal changes to a notarized document.

It is an in-person notarization. It depends on the eNotary if it chooses the traditional way where all the signer parties visit the notary office to notarize the documents. Whereas some notary public, like mobile notaries, reaches the designated place assigned by the signer party but notarized the documents electronically. You can choose the type of eNotary as per your convenience if you want to visit the notary office or call the Notary at your place.

Therefore, eNotary practices a hybrid method of notarization, which is in between mobile notarization and remote online notarization.

Most Closing documents require Notary public and signer parties to be in the same room; that’s why eNotarization is the most preferred and regarded as the safest means to close the dealings. The reason behind its importance is that the level of security levels up with the electronic ways used for notarization in eNotarization.

Remote Online Notary

Like eNotary, a Remote Online notary uses technology to carry the notarization. The Notary public practice the same process just like they do in eNotarization, using;

• Tablet or laptop,
• eSeal,
• Electronic signature,
• A secure public key to seal the documents.

But, the whole process is carried out online through an audio-video call. In Remote Online Notarization, the Notary and signer party are not physically present in front of each other, and they connect via an audio-video call. Unlike traditional notaries, the remote Notary public doesn’t have fixed offices, and they can operate from wherever you want them to, whether it’s your home, workplace, cafe, park, etc.

Verifying the signer’s identity is also different in RON. Unlike in other notarizations, the remote online Notary uses knowledge-based authentication or KBA to check the identity of the signer to ensure the authenticity of the signer’s documents. Remote online notarization is also known as virtual, online, or webcam notarization.

To prepare for RON, you must have the essential tools required to carry the notarization smoothly.

Concluding above, the comfort factor for both you and the Notary is just tremendous in Remote Online Notarization. No one needs to leave their place, you will get documents notarized from your desired location, and a notary also gets access to work from their place.

After the COVID-19, RON, which was restricted to a limited number of states, is legal in almost every state of America. Many platforms on the internet provide RON services if you are looking for online notaries near me to notarize your documents. For this, you can also choose Lottalegal for a safe and better experience; our process for remote online notarization goes as;

• Upload Document that you want to notarize

Apply on our website and fill in your basic details like your name, where you reside, your contact details, email address, and type of documents you want to notarize. Along with this, upload a soft copy of documents that need to be notarized.

• Connect with a Legal Notary via audio-video call

After submitting the form and uploading all the required documents is done from your side, a Notary will contact you. You and the Notary public will connect via audio-video call and verify your identity by KBN techniques. After ensuring all the details are correct, the Notary will notarize the documents electronically.

• Download your documents

Once the notarization is complete, the Notary public will send your notarized documents via your provided email, from where you can easily download your documents.