Notary Public Underwriters Blog
Recognizing Authorized Notarial Acts
- Details
- Published: November 18, 2024
When asked to notarize a signature on a document, how does a notary public know which notarial act should be performed?
Remember, the notarial act that shall be performed is never the notary’s choice—the parties relying on the document, or their legal counsel, are responsible for choosing it.
Most often, the chosen notarial act is indicated by notarial certificate language that is already preprinted on the document. The notary simply reads this language to determine (1) which notarial act is desired; and (2) whether it’s an act the notary is allowed to perform under the notary’s state laws and/or administrative rules.
Sometimes, the preprinted certificate language isn’t clear or indicates an act that is not authorized in the notary’s state of commission. The notary must then initiate a conversation—with the named document signer, or a party relying on the document—meant to reveal which notarial act is desired. The desired act must be one that the notary is authorized, by their state-specific law and rules, to perform.
The notary can facilitate this conversation by explaining the purpose of each notarial act (but NOT recommending any particular act), and providing a copy of each act’s notarial certificate wording. After all, a picture (or in this case, sample notarial certificate wording) is worth a thousand words.
Once the desired notarial act has been chosen, the notary may amend (only) the document’s existing notarial certificate language to reflect the language for the chosen, authorized notarial act the notary shall perform.
Finally… document the unusual circumstances of this particular notarization in your record book (journal) entry. Add a note stating that the document originally required a notarial act that you were not authorized to perform, but the named signer or relying parties (as applicable) elected to choose a different notarial act after reviewing sample certificate wording.
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