A Dropped Connection, a Failed KBA, and an Expired Passport in a Remote Signing
An Oregon notary commissioned for remote online notarization takes an appointment for a signer who says she is in a hotel in Boise, Idaho. In the first session, the platform's knowledge-based authentication fails twice; the signer then passes, and she signs the deed while the notary watches. Before the notary can complete the certificate, the connection drops for 20 minutes. On reconnect, the notary sees that the session recording stopped at the dropout. The software also flags that the signer's identification document expired three weeks ago, although her identity was confirmed through knowledge-based authentication. The notary wants to finish the certificate now, save time, and skip re-recording because 'I already watched her sign.'
1. May the notary complete the certificate on the reconnection, relying on what she saw before the dropout?
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No. Remote notarization substitutes audio-video technology for physical presence, so the technology must support the same thing physical presence would: continuous observation of the entire act by the notary, plus a complete recording.
- The notary observed a signature, but she did not observe the completion of the ceremony, and the record of the ceremony is incomplete.
- A 20-minute gap means the signer was unobserved with the document; anything could have happened to it.
- Completing a certificate that says the signer appeared and signed before her, when the session was interrupted and only partly recorded, misstates what occurred.
What to do: treat the first session as aborted. Start a new session, re-verify identity, have the signer re-execute or re-acknowledge in the new session, and complete the certificate dated to the new session, with a full recording. Log the aborted session in the journal as well, so the record shows one incomplete attempt and one completed act rather than a single unexplained gap.
2. How should the expired ID and the two failed authentication attempts be handled?
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The expired document is not acceptable identification. An identity document must be current; expiration is one of the things identity proofing exists to catch. Knowledge-based authentication confirms knowledge of data about a person, not that the person presenting the document holds a valid credential - so passing KBA does not cure an expired ID.
Failed attempts: most remote platforms set a limit on retries and then require an alternative method. Two failures followed by a pass is at the edge; the notary should check the platform's and Oregon's rules on retry limits and record the attempts, since repeated failures are a fraud indicator.
Options:
- Have the signer present a current, unexpired government photo ID and run credential analysis and identity proofing again.
- Use another identity-proofing method the rules permit, such as a credible witness appearing in the session, if that is allowed for remote acts.
- Decline the act.
Document which method was used and why in the journal - especially the rejected document and the basis for whatever was accepted.
3. What are the notary's recording, journal, and retention obligations for this transaction?
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Recording. The audio-video recording must capture the entire notarial act from identification through completion of the certificate. A truncated recording is functionally no recording. Retain the complete recording of the successful session; retain the aborted-session record too, or at minimum journal it.
Journal entry for the completed session should include:
- Date and time, signer's name and address.
- Type of act (acknowledgment or jurat).
- Identification method and the ID details, or the credible witness's name and address.
- A notation that the act was performed by remote technology, and the signer's stated physical location (Boise, Idaho, in the hotel) - not the notary's office.
- A reference tying the entry to the stored recording (an identifier or file name), so the two can be matched later.
Retention. Keep the journal and the recording for the full retention period Oregon requires, in secure storage with access controls; the recording contains biometric and identity data and should not sit in a shared folder.
Also confirm before the appointment that a signer located outside Oregon can be served under Oregon's remote rules and the platform's settings - that question should have been answered before the session, not after the dropout.