ORS 194.215 Definitions

As used in this chapter:

“Acknowledgment” means a declaration by an individual 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 person identified in the record.

“Clerk of a court of this state” means:

The clerk, deputy clerk or court administrator of the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals or the Oregon Tax Court;

The trial court administrator or any other nonjudicial officer or employee of the circuit court for a county who is authorized by the presiding judge for the judicial district; or

A nonjudicial officer or employee of a municipal court who is authorized by a judge of the municipal court.

“Commercial paper” means instruments that are within the scope of ORS chapter 73, including drafts, checks, certificates of deposit and notes.

“Electronic” means relating to technology having electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic or similar capabilities.

“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.

“In a representative capacity” means acting as:

An authorized officer, agent, partner, trustee or other representative of a person other than an individual;

A public officer, personal representative, guardian, conservator, trustee or other representative, in the capacity stated in a record;

An agent of or attorney-in-fact for a principal; or

An authorized representative of another in any other capacity.

“Judge” means:

Any judge of the circuit court, the Oregon Tax Court, the Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court, any Oregon Tax Court magistrate, any justice of the peace or municipal judge or any county judge who exercises judicial functions; or

Any judge or justice of the peace pro tempore.

“Notarial act” means:

Taking an acknowledgment;

Administering an oath or affirmation;

Taking a verification on oath or affirmation;

Witnessing or attesting a signature;

Certifying or attesting a copy;

Making, noting or recording a protest of a negotiable instrument; or

Any other act, whether performed with respect to a tangible or electronic record, that a notarial officer may perform under the law of this state.

“Notarial officer” means a notary public or other individual authorized to perform a notarial act.

“Notary public” means an individual commissioned to perform a notarial act by the Secretary of State.

“Oath” and “affirmation” mean a notarial act or part of a notarial act in which a notary public certifies that a person made a vow in the presence of the notary public on penalty of perjury.

“Official stamp” means a physical image affixed to a tangible record or an electronic image attached to or logically associated with an electronic record.

“Person” means an individual, corporation, business trust, statutory trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture, public corporation, government or governmental subdivision, agency or instrumentality or any other legal or commercial entity.

“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.

“Sign” means, with present intent to authenticate or adopt a record:

To execute or adopt a tangible symbol; or

To attach to or logically associate with the record an electronic symbol, sound or process.

“Signature” means a tangible symbol or an electronic signature that evidences the signing of a record.

“Stamping device” means:

A physical device capable of affixing to a tangible record an official stamp; or

An electronic device or process capable of attaching to or logically associating with an electronic record an official stamp.

“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.

“Verification on oath or affirmation” means a declaration, made by an individual on oath or affirmation before a notarial officer, that a statement in a record is true.