Civ. Code, § 1181.1 · Article 3. Proof and Acknowledgment of Instruments
Civ. Code, § 1181.1
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) Section 1181 shall not be construed to authorize any person, other than a notary public authorized by the Secretary of State to perform online notarizations pursuant to Article 2 (commencing with Section 8231) of Chapter 3 of Division 1 of Title 2 of the Government Code, to take a proof or acknowledgment of an instrument by means of appearances using audio-video communication, as that term is defined in subdivision (a) of Section 8231.1 of the Government Code.
(b) A California notary public shall not provide online notarization for any principal, and an online notarization platform shall not be authorized for use by a California notary public, until the earlier of the following:
(1) Certification by the Secretary of State on its internet website that the Secretary of State’s technology project necessary to implement statutes related to online notarization is complete.
(2) January 1, 2030, unless the Secretary of State informs the Legislature and the Governor in writing on or before January 1, 2029, that the technology project necessary to implement statutes related to online notarization will not be completed by January 1, 2030, including a detailed status of the technology project.
(c) This section shall remain in effect until the attainment of paragraph (1) or (2) of subdivision (b), and as of that date is repealed.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Added by Stats. 2023, Ch. 291, Sec. 1. (SB 696) Effective January 1, 2024. Conditionally repealed as prescribed by its own provisions. See later operative version added by Sec. 2 of Stats. 2023, Ch. 291.
Another version listed by the Legislative Counsel
Conditionally operative as prescribed by its own provisions.
(a) Section 1181 shall not be construed to authorize any person, other than a notary public authorized by the Secretary of State to perform online notarizations pursuant to Article 2 (commencing with Section 8231) of Chapter 3 of Division 1 of Title 2 of the Government Code, to take a proof or acknowledgment of an instrument by means of appearances using audio-video communication, as that term is defined in subdivision (a) of Section 8231.1 of the Government Code.
(b) This section shall become operative upon the earlier of the following:
(1) Certification by the Secretary of State on its internet website that the Secretary of State’s technology project necessary to implement statutes related to online notarization is complete.
(2) January 1, 2030, unless the Secretary of State informs the Legislature and the Governor in writing on or before January 1, 2029, that the technology project necessary to implement statutes related to online notarization will not be completed by January 1, 2030, including a detailed status of the technology project.
History (another version listed by the Legislative Counsel)
Repealed (in Sec. 1) and added by Stats. 2023, Ch. 291, Sec. 2. (SB 696) Effective January 1, 2024. Conditionally operative as prescribed by its own provisions.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=1181.1.
- Text hash
- sha256 b30802a737403d75a2561c2c9587b21320f8f41aa9baf128da6bd5a2320ab611
- Composed by
- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
- the Legislative Counsel lists 2 versions of this section; the version shown is the one in force by its history, the other is under "Another version listed by the Legislative Counsel" (conditional)
- the version shown operates conditionally by its own provisions (its history says so)
This section cites
Provisions in this library that the text above cites, as it prints each citation. A range cited as “ss. 61.13-61.16” links its first and last provisions.
Civil Code
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