New Jersey Updates Title Recordation Laws

ESIGN

On January 17, New Jersey enacted a 2010-2011 session bill, A2565, to modernize the state's title recordation laws to permit the use of electronic documents and to reorganize and streamline the state's recordation requirements. Given that the federal E-sign Act and the New Jersey Uniform Electronic Transactions Act both authorize the acceptance of electronic alternatives to paper documents and encourage the development of systems that accept electronic documents, the bill updates state law to, for example, (i) broaden the definition of "document" and "recorded" to allow for electronic recordation; (ii) delete statutory references to separate sets of books or separate databases for different kinds of documents; (iii) remove requirements for marginal notation of documents; and (iv) require development of standard formats for electronic documents.