Notary's office goes digital: the Digi-Notary from Latvia

The portal of Latvian sworn notaries "www.latvijasnotars.lv" has been offering online video consultations and remote notarial services since 1 July 2018. For example, no one who spends a lot of time abroad has to come to Latvia to grant a power of attorney, for example for the management of real estate or the receipt of mail and parcels.

Digi-Notar currently offers the following online services:

• Granting a power of attorney or notarised consent

• Opening an inheritance case

• Obtaining legal advice

• Formalisation of a divorce

• Notarial preparation of the sale of a property and the conclusion of the corresponding transaction

• Taking up a will

This makes the Latvian notary's office the first in the Baltic states to use online services at www.latvijasnotars.lv to get so close to its citizens.

Low-threshold access, resource-saving processing

Citizens can request an online video consultation at ‘www.notary.lv’ under ‘Find a notary’ by selecting any notary and specifying when they need an online power of attorney, for example. To use this service, all you need is a stable internet connection, a web camera, a microphone or loudspeaker, an electronic signature, an electronic ID document and an online banking account.

As with an analogue visit to a notary, the final cost of the online services used depends on the type of service required. For example, an online consultation costs the same as an offline consultation - around €10.96 per hour. The services received can be paid for from any bank.

The Digi-Notary is primarily intended to make life easier for Latvian citizens, but the online services also have other advantages: Because they also make it possible to save money and resources. The relevant online procedures are handled directly in one office, including the delivery of documents to various other offices, e.g. the land register. This saves bureaucratic detours and human resources.

Would you like to find out more about the lighthouse projects of our partner country Latvia? Visit us at the Smart Country Convention from 15-17 October in Berlin and discover Latvia's pioneering digital projects and initiatives first-hand.

Further information about this year's partner country can be found here.