§502-123 Recording of documents. (a) Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, and subject to rules adopted by the department of land and natural resources pursuant to chapter 91, the registrar may:

(1) Accept, make, keep, enter, file, index, store, archive, and transmit electronic documents; provided that the registrar shall also continue to accept paper documents for recording and shall place entries for both types of documents in the same index;

(2) Convert or copy paper documents that are accepted for recording into electronic form;

(3) Convert or copy prior records of documents made in the bureau of conveyances into electronic form;

(4) Accept fees for services rendered under this chapter electronically; and

(5) Enter into agreements with other officials of states or political subdivisions thereof, or of the United States, on procedures or processes to electronically satisfy prior approvals and conditions precedent to recording and to facilitate the electronic payment of fees.

(b) This part shall also apply to any document that is received by the registrar of the bureau of conveyances or filed at the bureau of conveyances by the registrar of the land court pursuant to chapter 501.

(c) The department of land and natural resources shall adopt rules pursuant to chapter 91 necessary for the purposes of this part, including to determine when an electronic document shall be considered delivered to the registrar pursuant to section 502-32.

(d) To keep the standards and practices of recording in the State in harmony with the standards and practices of recording offices in other jurisdictions that enact provisions substantially similar to this part, and to keep the technology used by the registrar compatible with technology used by recording offices in other jurisdictions that enact provisions substantially similar to this part, the department of land and natural resources, so far as is consistent with the provisions of this part, in adopting rules under chapter 91, shall consider:

(1) The standards and practices of other jurisdictions;

(2) The most recent standards adopted by national standard setting bodies such as the Property Records Industry Association;

(3) The views of interested persons and governmental officials and entities;

(4) The needs of jurisdictions of varying size, population, and resources; and

(5) Standards requiring adequate information security protection to ensure that electronic documents are accurate, authentic, adequately preserved, and resistant to tampering. [L 2009, c 102, pt of §2(1)]