HOUSE BILL REPORT

SB 6227

BYSenators Pullen, Talmadge and Halsan

Revising provisions on acknowledgments.

House Committe on Judiciary

Majority Report:  Do pass.  (17)

      Signed by Representatives Armstrong, Chair; Crane, Vice Chair; Appelwick, Belcher, Brough, Hargrove, P. King, Lewis, Locke, Meyers, Moyer, Padden, Patrick, Schmidt, Scott, Wang and Wineberry.

House Staff:Harry Reinert (786-7110)

AS PASSED HOUSE MARCH 3, 1988

BACKGROUND:

An officer taking an acknowledgement must prepare a certificate which is written on or attached to the document.  The officer must include a statement that the persons signing the document are known to the officer.

Notary publics are authorized to take acknowledgements.  A new enactment covering notary publics took effect January 1, 1986.  That enactment includes forms for acknowledgements.

SUMMARY:

An officer taking an acknowledgement must have satisfactory evidence of the identity of the person signing the document.  Satisfactory evidence of a person's identity is: personal knowledge; identified upon oath by a person personally known by the officer; or identified on the basis of identification documents.

A certificate of acknowledgment may be either in the form specified in the acknowledgements provision or, for acknowledgements made after December 31, 1985, in the form provided for in the notary public statutes.

Fiscal Note:      Not Requested.

House Committee ‑ Testified For:    David Rockwell, Washington State Bar Association.

House Committee - Testified Against:      None Presented.

House Committee - Testimony For:    The bill helps to clarify the manner in which an official can determine the identity of a person signing an acknowledgment.

House Committee - Testimony Against:      None Presented.