Automated Affidavits Explained (Advertisers)

Is your newspaper using Column's automated affidavits service? Good news for you! This means you'll get your affidavits faster and be able to access them in your Column account in perpetuity. 

Affidavits will be available in your Column account 4 business days after the last publication date of your notice. Column's notaries and signatories sign on a scheduled cadence.

Your affidavit will now be completed via Remote Online Notarization. This means it'll have a digital signature and seal, and be signed and notarized by Column's signatories and remote notaries, who operate nationwide.

Yes. Column notaries operate all over the country. Under the U.S. Constitution, states abide by full faith and credit accorded to foreign state affidavits, meaning that states respect and give full credit to affidavits issued by "foreign" (U.S.) state authority. In other words, states will accept affidavits that are issued by notaries from other U.S. states.

Remote Online Notarization is a process that allows a notary public to notarize documents remotely — using audio-video technology and digital signatures — while still in the synchronous presence of a signatory. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many states enacted legislation or executive orders permitting the use of Remote Online Notarization. Column's team has done extensive research and verified each state's qualification requirements, and always confirms a respective state's policies before setting up a publisher with our automated affidavits service.

Your newspaper signed a Limited Agency Agreement with Column to legally designate Column's signatories to sign affidavits on the publisher's behalf. Column's in-house notaries then notarize the affidavits via Remote Online Notarization.

Yes. All affidavits that are notarized via Column's Automated Affidavit service are legally valid and should be accepted by all county clerks. If you run into issues, reach out to support at help@column.us. If you've received a rejection letter, please include it in your e-mail, and our affidavits team will review it.

Nope! The process will look no different to you. The biggest difference is that you'll now receive your affidavits much faster than before and in a digital format! If you want a print version of your affidavit, you can always print it directly from your Column account.

Column's automated affidavits service will provide a wet signature affidavit if required by the jurisdiction the notice was published. Once the publication is complete, the affidavit will be signed, notarized, and mailed to your address. Please allow time for mail delivery.

If your jurisdiction doesn't legally require a wet-signature affidavit, the digitally signed affidavit will be the only one provided. You can download a copy of the affidavit from your account to print a copy if a hard copy is needed.