Mississippi Code 1972 (2023) › Title 25 - PUBLIC OFFICERS AND EMPLOYEES; PUBLIC RECORDS (§§ 25-1-1 — 25-65-33) › Chapter 34 - REVISED MISSISSIPPI LAW ON NOTARIAL ACTS (§§ 25-34-1 — 25-34-57) › Section 25-34-3 - Definitions

As used in this chapter, the following words and phrases have the meanings ascribed in this section unless the context clearly requires otherwise:
(a)
"Acknowledgment" means a declaration by an individual in person before a notarial officer that the individual has signed a record for the purpose stated in the record and, if the record is signed in a representative capacity, that the individual signed the record with proper authority and signed it as the act of the individual or entity identified in the record.
(b)
"Electronic" means relating to technology having electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic or similar capabilities.
(c)
"Electronic signature" means an electronic symbol, sound or process attached to or logically associated with a record and executed or adopted by an individual with the intent to sign the record.
(d)
"In a representative capacity" means acting as:
(i)
An authorized officer, manager, member, agent, partner, trustee or other representative for a person other than an individual;
(ii)
A public officer, personal representative, guardian or other representative, in the capacity stated in a record;
(iii)
An agent or attorney-in-fact for a principal; or
(iv)
An authorized representative of another in any other capacity.
(e)
"Notarial act" means an act, whether performed with respect to a tangible or electronic record, that a notarial officer may perform under this chapter and any other law of this state.
(f)
"Notarial officer" means a notary public or other individual authorized to perform a notarial act.
(g)
"Notary public" means an individual commissioned to perform a notarial act by the Secretary of State.
(h)
"Official seal" means a physical image affixed to a tangible record or an electronic image attached to or logically associated with an electronic record.
(i)
"Record" means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form.
(j)
"Sign" means, with present intent to authenticate or adopt a record:
(i)
To execute or adopt a tangible symbol; or
(ii)
To attach to or logically associate with the record an electronic symbol, sound or process.
(k)
"Signature" means a tangible symbol or an electronic signature that evidences the signing of a record.
(l)
"Stamping device" means:
(i)
A physical device capable of affixing to a tangible record an official seal; or
(ii)
An electronic device or process capable of attaching to or logically associating an official seal with an electronic record.
(m)
"State" means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.
(n)
"Verification on oath or affirmation," formerly known as a jurat, means a declaration, made by an individual on oath or affirmation before a notarial officer, that a statement in a record is true.
Added by Laws, 2020, ch. 382, HB 1156,§ 2, eff. 7/1/2021.