Who is a notary public?

Editor’s note: From time to time, we offer an explanation as to the job and its duties to the public-at-large.

Who is a notary public? What are the duties of the job?

“A notary public (or notary or public notary) in the common law world 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,” according to Wikipedia.

“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.”

According to the Massachusetts notary public application, “the applicant hereby states that they have read and understand the following information regarding the responsibilities of being a notary public:

1. A notary public is empowered to: administer oaths and affirmations; perform acknowledgments and jurats and witness signatures; issue subpoenas; protest commercial papers; and be present at the removal of the contents of bank safe deposit boxes.

2. A notary public may witness documents for use in Massachusetts and in other states. However, a notary public may only witness documents so long as he or she is physically present in Massachusetts at the time of the notarization.

3. A notary public is a public servant performing a public duty. If a notary public is performing notarizations at a place of business, the notary public may not decline to notarize a document for a person who is not conducting business with the notary public’s employer. For example, if the notary public works at a bank, the notary public may not decline to notarize a document solely because a person is not a client of that bank.

4. A notary public may only charge the amount set forth in statute for performing a notarization. It is the notary public’s responsibility to know the proper amount to charge. In no case may a notary public charge more than the statutory amount.

5. A notary public must ensure that the person signing a document to be notarized is who s/he says s/he is. This means that the notary public must ask for and receive satisfactory evidence of identity before performing the notarization. By signing this document, I attest under the pains and penalties of perjury that I have read and understand this information regarding the responsibilities of being a notary.”

Posted by George C. Jordan III on September 20, 2012. Filed under Editorials,Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry