On July 22, Governor Phil Murphy signed S-2508 (Gopal)/A-4250 (Downey), which revises the law concerning notaries and notarial acts, and authorizes electronic signatures on all but a few documents in New Jersey. The New Jersey State Bar Association (NJSBA) worked closely with the sponsors in support of this legislation.
“At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was challenging for many New Jersey residents to get documents notarized and move forward with legal and financial transactions because notarial services needed to be performed in person,” said Assemblywoman Joann Downey, a prime sponsor of the bill. “Since we amended the law, it has become much easier for residents to safely access this essential service.”
Last year, legislation was passed to permit remote notarization of certain documents, which still required wet ink signatures to be returned to the notary in order to effectively notarize the documents. This new legislation permits electronic notarization of documents previously prohibited, including Uniform Commercial Code documents and those related to family law matters. Wills and codicils will continue to require wet ink signatures to be collected upon remote notarization, because New Jersey does not permit electronic wills.
In addition, the bill requires non-attorney notaries to comply with all educational requirements the state treasurer sets forth in rules to be adopted a year from the date the governor signed the bill. These requirements are not applicable to New Jersey attorneys, who may still notarize documents without such course requirements.
The bill takes affect on Oct. 2. Currently, documents may be remotely notarized pursuant to the law that became effective last year. This law terminates upon the recission of Executive Order 103. Since the state of emergency is still in effect, the executive order has not yet been fully rescinded by the governor.
NJSBA Weighs In On Judiciary’s Landlord Tenant Directive, Urges Later Implementation Of Interim Process
The NJSBA is urging the Administrative Office of the Courts to delay implementation of an interim process that imposes mandatory settlement conferences prior to the implementation of proposed procedures by the Judiciary to take effect Sept. 1. The letter to Chief Justice Stuart Rabner comes after the Judiciary’s July 1 directive introducing the interim process, which the NJSBA believes to be harmful to both landlords and tenants.
The NJSBA identified four areas of concern for the Judiciary’s consideration to halt the interim process:
- The interim process poses barriers to participation that cannot be easily overcome, not taking into account a party’s failure to receive notice of the conference and lack of understanding of the notice provisions. The implications of failing to appreciate such notice provisions could impact a party’s ability to be protected from an adverse action, such as a default judgment, and – especially for tenants – cause them to lose opportunities for rental assistance that helps both landlords and tenants.
- Default or dismissal matters through the interim process may be premature and will harm both landlords and tenants who may have their matters resolved under pending legislation or through the receipt of rental assistance if the mandatory conferences are delayed. The governor has yet to sign S-3691/A-5685, which would provide financial relief to certain landlords and tenants in response to the pandemic, and adjusts court fees.
- Many parties will not be able to appropriately exercise their rights under the interim process. The NJSBA pointed out that the interim process requires a proof hearing prior to entry of a default judgment, which would be held immediately upon a party’s failure to appear and would likely not include any of the tenant’s defenses. Rather, the proof hearing would contain a landlord’s certification of underlying facts – a one-sided hearing. Tenants who have default judgments entered against them will lose their right to remain in their homes regardless of their defenses, and would lose opportunities to obtain rental assistance that could make the landlord financially whole.
- The interim process does not allow adequate time to engage counsel because it allows only for one settlement conference, instead of an initial case management conference followed by the settlement conference.
“We urge the Court to delay consideration of those matters for just a few more weeks to allow for the implementation of those comprehensive, well-planned recommendations to begin,” said NJSBA President Domenick Carmagnola in the letter to the chief justice. Those recommendations, along with the legislation, if signed into law, would provide protections for both landlords and tenants, said Carmagnola.
This is a status report provided by the New Jersey State Bar Association on recently passed and pending legislation, regulations, gubernatorial nominations and/or appointments of interest to lawyers, as well as the involvement of the NJSBA as amicus in appellate court matters. To learn more, visit njsba.com.