1. Whenever a governmental agency of this State or a political subdivision of this State acquires, replaces or updates an information processing system or any part of such a system, including, without limitation, any software used by the system, the governmental agency shall consider the use of equipment and software that enables the governmental agency to send, accept, process, use and rely upon electronic records and electronic signatures, including, without limitation, certified copies of the records of the governmental agency in electronic form or certified copies of the records of an originating agency that are provided in electronic form.

2. If a person provides a receiving agency with a certified copy of a record of an originating agency, the receiving agency:

(a) Shall not refuse to accept, process, use or rely upon the certified copy solely because it is in electronic form.

(b) May refuse to accept, process, use or rely upon the certified copy if it is in electronic form and the receiving agency would be required to acquire and pay for any equipment or software to accept, process, use or rely upon the certified copy in the form provided.

3. An originating agency may charge and collect the same fee for a certified copy in electronic form as is provided by law for a certified copy in paper form.

4. If a receiving agency incurs a fee or other cost for accepting or processing a certified copy in electronic form, the receiving agency may charge and collect a fee to accept or process such a copy, in an amount not to exceed the actual cost to the receiving agency of accepting or processing the copy.

5. As used in this section:

(a) “Originating agency” means a governmental agency which attests that a certified copy described in subsection 2 is a true copy of a record of the governmental agency.

(b) “Receiving agency” means a governmental agency of this State or a political subdivision of this State to which a certified copy is provided as described in subsection 2.

(Added to NRS by 2019, 2818, effective January 1, 2020)