Effective July 1st, 2018- Texas will become third state (behind VA and MT) to allow remote (or "webcam") notarization. Some implications that we noted:

-HB 1217 creates its own licensing requirements for notaries who perform remote notarization- through the secretary of state.

- The notarial acknowledgement may need to be amended to “include a space for an online notarization . . . to indicate by which method . . . the acknowledging person appeared before the officer.”

-Recordkeeping requirements are similar to VA and MT laws where a secure electronic record of the audio-video session must be stored for a period of 5 years.

- The law allows Notaries to charge a maximum fee of $25 for an online notarization, but it also allows an employer of an online Notary to charge this fee.

An update to this one- Secretary of State announced that they intend to respond to the swarm of public comments on this issue with a second set of rules to be likely promulgated likely next week and accepted sometime in July. We are told that e-notary applications will be accepted and begun to be processed starting July 1st as originally planned.