Reply by PAW Notary Services on 6/2/04 2:36pm
Msg #2600
For everything you ever wanted to know (and lots of stuff you didn't want to know), visit the official CRESPA information section at:
http://www.vsb.org/crespa/
The Virginia State Bar Council at its October 1996 meeting in Roanoke voted to approve and recommend to the Supreme Court adoption of Unauthorized Practice of Law Opinion #183. This opinion held, in essence, that the closing of a real estate transaction in Virginia constitutes the practice of law, and its adoption by the Court would have meant that non-lawyers would have been barred from conducting such closings.
The Consumer Real Estate Settlement Protection Act (CRESPA or the Act) authorizes licensed Virginia attorneys, title insurance companies and agents, real estate brokers and financial institutions (or a subsidiary or affiliate thereof), to serve as Settlement Agents and provide "escrow, closing or settlement services" if they register with the Virginia State Bar and meet other conditions of their regulatory agencies. CRESPA went into effect July 1, 1997 and can be found at Virginia Code Sections 6.1-2.19 through 6.1-2.29.
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