Hello. I am trying to find which electronic journal to use in PA and was not able to get this information neither from PAN or my local association.
Does anybody know what electronic journal can be used in PA for in-person notarizations?
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I don’t know, but whoever does may need to know whether the journal will be used for RON, in-person electronic notarization, traditional notarizations, or some combination of these.
curious, why would you need an electronic journal?
I believe the electronic journal is better for at least 3 reasons:
- You copy the id image into the journal instead of writing down the information,
2 and it’s easier to carry as the traditional journals are huge - and usually they don’t have those strips to cover previous entries.
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I added it. It’s for in-person notarizations.
It’s all good until they stop supporting it, which seems to happen on a regular basis.
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I found a place where the draft regulations for the newish version of the PA notary law, RULONA, may be downloaded:
You don’t have to follow the draft regulations yet, but you will probably want to adopt a journal that will comply with these if and when they do go into effect.
The draft regulations forbid recording “personally identifiable information about any individual appearing before the notary public.” There are some exceptions. But copying the image of the driver license would not be allowed.
You have to keep it indefinitely as long as you are a notary, and turn it into the county recorder of deeds when you resign your commission, “in a format prescribed by the receiving recorder of deeds”. In other words, you have to predict today what format the recorder of deeds will be accepting when you resign your commission, which might be 20 years from now. I have no idea what format will be popular 20 years from now.
As Archter says, you will have to depend on your supplier to keep supporting the journal, and if they decide to stop, you will have to download it before they go belly-up. If you do download it, it might not be in a tamper-evident format, so you will be in violation. Also, if you become less active as a notary, you may not want to keep paying the fees to keep your journal available.
True story. I met a notary at the county clerks office who worked in an escrow office throughout the busy decade before the 2008 Real estate crash. She was resigning her Commission and returning her journals to the county clerk. In her box was one journal and about 500 sheets of computer paper. Each Connected sheet had about 50 entries with tiny little thumbprint impressions at the corner of each line. I’m pretty sure some of you may remember when the NNA marketed this system software with a signature pad. After she had left, I asked the clerk about those pages of notarizations, and he said he could only store the journal, the rest was not usable. Not OK.
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Interesting.
I thought the procedures are the same for the state regardless of which journal you use (electronic or paper).
But I had a closing on a real estate in August 2023.
A notary ,who was doing the closing, made a paper copy of my ID for the title company which is ok, but then he snapped the pics of my DL (front and back) to his phone.
It happened so quickly, I had no time to protest.
He explained that electric journals require it.
Then he asked me to sign in his phone.
I wanted to refuse but he said we would not be able to continue the closing without my signature in his phone.
He showed me his electronic journal and explained how it worked.
I was like hypnotized and signed.
After the closing I realized that he did not notarize anything at that closing at all.
So I emailed PAN asking if all those actions of this notary were legit.
They replied “you should file a claim with the state”.
I did.
I couple weeks I received a letter from the state saying that my claim was dismissed.
Nothing wrong was found in the actions of that notary.
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Notary Act is approved for PA. I love it except for one thing: they raised the price greatly. It was $30 per year for unlimited transactions. Now it’s $149 for unlimited, and $99 for 60 per month.
It does, however, work like a champ and even works when you are off line (it will upload when you go on line). And no more books. Every year I download a PDF of the entire previous year and save it. So even if Notary Act goes belly up, I have my journal in PDF format. And did I mention no books?
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I am also in PA and use an ejournal (Notary Act.)
Only the code on the back of the license is scanned and the required info is auto-uploaded into the ejournal. There is no photo taken of anything. I make sure to tell this to my signer to avoid any anxiety.
In PA, a signature in the journal is not required. Only the following is required, copied and pasted from the state’s website:
- The date and time of the notarial act.
- A description of the record, if any, and type of notarial act.
- The full name and full address (street and number, city and state) of each individual for whom the notarial act is performed.
- If identity of the individual is based on personal knowledge, a statement to that effect.
- If identity of the individual is based on satisfactory evidence, a brief description of the method of identification and any identification credential presented, including the date of issuance and expiration of an identification credential.
- The fee charged by the notary public.
It looks like maybe the notary doesn’t know how to properly use the app. Signing should be set to “not required” in the settings.
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Love it! I don’t do more than 60 a month. Not even close 
What e-journal do you use? I can’t find what is improved in PA.
And that notary did not even notarize anything. Why would he scan my DL.
But then I can switch back to a paper journal. Or maybe they will come up with something new and better.
I’m pretty sure the whole world is moving to a paperless transactions in all fields.
Notary Act - found it! Thank you so much! I really appreciate you.
I took a glance at the pricing section of the NotaryAct website. I notice they charge $9.99 per month for “60 notarizations per month”. In other threads there have been discussions about exactly what counts as a “notarization” for the purpose of the notary fees set by some states. Opinions varied. One opinion is that every signature on every notarized document counts as a notarization.
So if that is how NotaryAct does it, a loan package with 10 notarized documents and 2 signers would count as 20 notarizations, 1/3 of the monthly allowance.
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Sounds like that opinion is based on states like CA and those others whose state’s laws allow for a notary fee “per signature” as opposed to others who state fees "per notarial act’
My own view is that for acts involving a signature by people who appear before the notary, the number of signatures is equal to the number of notarial acts, although the affixing of the signer’s signature often is only part of the notarial act. But I think other discussions have brought out one or two states that define it differently, and a lot of states where it’s hazy.
There are other notarial acts which don’t require a signature from the people who appear, or don’t require an appearance at all. Administering an oral oath doesn’t necessarily involve the oath-taker signing anything. In my state, certifying a copy does not require a signature from the person who requested the copy.
Maybe one of the people who use NotaryAct have figured out exactly how NotaryAct counts.
Oh wow. I did not look at it that way. Thank you for your responce, I really appreciate it. Maybe I will stick with my paper journal.
Although, how many paper journals I would buy per year and how many I would end up storing in several years.
Maybe the e-journal could be easier and not that much more expensive.
One notary stamp = one notarial act. Regardless of how many people signed. I think that is how it works in PA.
If 10 people signed on a deed, it does not mean 10 deeds have been signed.
Why would we count it like 10 notarial acts.
Although it would be 10 entries in the journal.
But one stamp.
I am not sure. I hope NotaryAct counts the stamps only.