What is "notary public"

Notary \No"ta*ry\, n.; pl. Notaries. [F. notaire, L. notarius notary (in sense 1), fr. nota mark. See 5th Note.]

1. One who records in shorthand what is said or done; as, the notary of an ecclesiastical body.

2. (Eng. & Am. Law) A public officer who attests or certifies deeds and other writings, or copies of them, usually under his official seal, to make them authentic, especially in foreign countries. His duties chiefly relate to instruments used in commercial transactions, such as protests of negotiable paper, ship's papers in cases of loss, damage, etc. He is generally called a notary public.

n. an officer who can administer oaths and statutory declarations, witness and authenticate documents and perform certain other acts varying from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

n. someone legally empowered to witness signatures and certify a document's validity and to take depositions [syn: notary]

A notary public (or notary or public notary) of the common law is a public officer constituted by law to serve the public in non-contentious matters usually concerned with estates, deeds, powers-of-attorney, and foreign and international business. A notary's main functions are to administer oaths and affirmations, take affidavits and statutory declarations, witness and authenticate the execution of certain classes of documents, take acknowledgments of deeds and other conveyances, protest notes and bills of exchange, provide notice of foreign drafts, prepare marine or ship's protests in cases of damage, provide exemplifications and notarial copies, and perform certain other official acts depending on the jurisdiction. Any such act is known as a notarization. The term notary public only refers to common-law notaries and should not be confused with civil-law notaries.

With the exceptions of Louisiana, Puerto Rico, Quebec, whose private law is based on civil law, and British Columbia, whose notarial tradition stems from scrivener notary practice, a notary public in the rest of the United States and most of Canada has powers that are far more limited than those of civil-law or other common-law notaries, both of whom are qualified lawyers admitted to the bar: such notaries may be referred to as notaries-at-law or lawyer notaries. Therefore, at common law, notarial service is distinctly different from the practice of law, and giving legal advice and preparing legal instruments is forbidden to lay notaries such as those appointed throughout most of the United States of America.

Notaries public in New York are commissioned by the Secretary of State of New York after passing a short examination in law and procedure. A notary's commission is received from and kept on file with the county clerk of the county in which they reside or do business, but notaries are empowered to actually perform their duties anywhere in the state.

A notary public in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is empowered to perform seven distinct official acts: take affidavits, verifications, acknowledgments and depositions, certify copies of documents, administer oaths and affirmations, and protest dishonored negotiable instruments. A notary is strictly prohibited from giving legal advice or drafting legal documents such as contracts, mortgages, leases, wills, powers of attorney, liens or bonds.

According to the Pennsylvania Association of Notaries, there are more than 84,000 notaries in the state; 247 of them also have been approved by the Secretary of the Commonwealth to notarize electronically.

Although the notarial office is unique, other officers of the Commonwealth are authorized to act as notaries in some respects. For example, the Secretary and clerks of courts may issue certifications, election officers may administer oaths, and law enforcement officers may take affidavits.

In the United States, a notary public is a person appointed by a state government, e.g., the governor, lieutenant governor, state secretary, or in some cases the state legislature, and whose primary role is to serve the public as an impartial witness when important documents are signed. Since the notary is a state officer, a notary's duties may vary widely from state to state and in most cases bars a notary from acting outside his or her home state unless they also have a commission there as well.

A notary public in Virginia is authorized to acknowledge signatures, administer oaths, and certify copies (excluding documents in governmental custody, e.g., birth certificates, death certificates, etc.). A notary may only authenticate a person based upon that person's documentation of their identity (such as a driver's license or identification card), or by the notary's own personal knowledge of the person appearing before them, use of witnesses to identify an individual is not permitted. A notary may not authenticate their own signature or that of their spouse, nor may a notary authenticate any document to which they or their spouse are a party. An example given is that a notary could authenticate a will, even if they are an executor, but could not do so if they are a beneficiary of that will.

An individual who is a resident of Virginia (or a resident of another state who normally works in Virginia) may become a notary public. They must be at least 18 years of age, have no unpardoned felony convictions, be able to read and write, and fill out an application (which itself must be notarized) which is sent to the Secretary of the Commonwealth. The application used to require the applicant obtain signatures of two Virginia voters attesting to the honesty and character of the applicant; this provision has been eliminated effective July 1. The application to become a notary points out that since the persons who sign the application as voters are parties to the document, the notary who authenticates the applicant's signature cannot be either of those persons. Virginia officials request, but do not require, that the applicant include their social security number (they have also accepted Virginia drivers license numbers) on the form, for use as a unique identifier. The applicant may, by checking a box on the application, choose to remove the words "in the year of Our Lord" which normally appear before the year the commission is issued. While the applicant must swear that they have read the notary laws, there is no test or special knowledge required.

Virginia law requires a notary to use a seal on every document they notarize. The law specifies that when a seal is used that it must be sharp, legible, permanent and photographically reproducible. Also, it is recommended that the notary seal be imprinted or stampped just below the notarial statement. Care should be taken to not obscure the signatures or other parts of the document.

Beginning July 1, 2007, the law in Virginia changes; The Secretary of the Commonwealth has also mailed out a letter dictating these changes, some of which include:

• All notarial statements require that the notary's registration number appear on the document. This is a serial number that appears at the bottom of the commission and has been on commissions issued since at least 2006.
• The law now makes it clearer that the signer of a document must do so "in the presence of the notary at the time of signing and notarization."
• The notarial certificate must be on the same page as the signatures being notarized.
• In 2008, no approval by a public official is necessary but the notary applicant must sign the application in the presence of a notary or other official who is able to administer oaths and take acknowledgments.

New provisions effective July 1, 2008 permit authentication of documents for electronic commerce; those provisions will be explained in later correspondence to be issued by the Secretary of the Commonwealth. In addition, the 2007 change requiring that the notarial certificate appear be on the same page as the signatures being notarized was significantly limited so that it now applies only in cases where the "notarial certificate [does not] include[] the name of each person whose signature is being notarized. See Virginia Code Title 47.1.

On July 1, 2012, Virginia became the first state to authorize a signer to be in a remote location and have a document notarized electronically by an approved Virginia electronic notary using audio-visual conference technology by passing the bills SB 827 and HB 2318.

In the U.S. state of Florida, a notary public is a public officer appointed by the governor of the state to take acknowledgments, administer oaths, attest to photocopies of certain documents, solemnize marriage, protest the non-acceptance or non-payment of negotiable instruments 1, and perform other duties specified by law.

A notary may only perform a notarial act upon receipt of satisfactory proof of identity (i.e. a driver's license or other form of identification card), or by the notary's own personal knowledge of the person appearing before them, or upon the sworn statement of two witnesses who personally know the person whose signature is to be authenticated. A notary may not notarize their own signature, or the signature of their spouse, parent, or child.