This afternoon (Saturday, May 2) the North Carolina General Assembly passed (unanimously!) a number of emergency bills in response to the COVID-19 crisis. The bills have been presented to Governor Cooper and will be signed at any time.
Among the many provisions are procedures for notarizing and witnessing various documents via video conferencing software (such as Zoom, FaceTime, GoToMeeting). That will make document signing much easier for my colleagues (and their clients) in real estate or general estate planning practices.
And, of course, it will be a boon to Mason Law, PC. We ARE open and I am conducting client meetings via Zoom (and getting pretty good at it, if I do say so). Yesterday, we conducted a document signing through an assisted living facility window. Zoom would have been a bit easier.
In fact, we’ll see how the video witnessing goes (it expires August 1). If it works well, we can argue that the genie is out of the bottle and we ought to keep it around.
Take care. Wash your hands!
Thank you for your update and keeping us in the loop.
Hope all is well with you and your family