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Category: Notarizations

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In an earlier post, I talked about how Notaries identify signers. You can read that post here. This year, there have been some changes to what forms of ID can be used by Notaries to identify signers of documents. The forms of ID now acceptable to use are:

1 Identification card or driver’s license from State of California;

2 US Passport;

3 An ID card or driver’s license from another state or by a an Canadian or Mexican public agency authorized to issue Drivers Licenses;

4 An employee id card issued by an agency or office of the State of California or an agency or office of a city, county, or city and county in California;

(And new this year, a Notary can use)

5. A tribal identification card from a federally recognized tribal government;

6. A consular identification card and a foreign passport without further qualification;

7. Any form of ID issued by a sheriff's department that is current or has been issued in the past 5 years for a prisoner in custody in a county jail or local detention facility.

If the signer does not have one of the above IDs that is valid, there still is a way they can be identified for purposes of a notarization. It's called using a Credible Witness. A signer's identity can be verified by a single Credible Witness that the notary public personally knows or by two Credible WItnesses who are not personally known to the notary public. In both of the Credible Witness situations, the notary needs to be able to identify by ID the Credible Witness(es) using the IDs listed above. No matter what, someone, the Credible Witness(es) or the signer him/herself, must have a valid ID. NO EXCEPTIONS!

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Recently the National Notary Association published another model notary act, this one dealing with electronic notarizations. It's called the Model Electronic Notarization Act of 2017 referred to as MENA. A very good article about this Act has appeared on page 10 of The National Notary Magazine put out by the NNA.

While I haven't read the Act in it's entirety I believe that this article is a very good introduction to the new act and explains the basics of it. What I hope happens is that Notaries Public read the article and the Act in order to learn what is coming in the future. 

In regards to electronic notarizations, I am skeptical of moving towards using this technology to do notarizations. What I am most concerned about is the lack of personal physical appearance when a notarization is being done. I recently wrote a blog post on Personal Appearance and its importance to the notarization process. 

With electronic notarizations (where the client is not physically present but communicating via audio-visual means), I believe that there is a possibility for improper identification. One method for identification in this situation is where the client answers questions which only the client is supposed to know the answer. This is a fair way to identify someone but there are drawbacks. The answers to those questions may possibly be found online from postings, messages, or picture information posted on social media. A lot of personal information is being shared these days online. Very good authentication needs to be done. There is also the issue of the quality of the audio-visual connection. 

I do believe that we need to move with the times and incorporate new technologies into the work that Notaries Public do. I think notarization of electronic documents might be a first step. I have worked with electronic signatures and I do believe that the are valid in a court of law. There already is a way for a notary to "stamp" a document with an electronic notary stamp. I might explore that as a new avenue of notarizations that I might do. The new MENA put out by the National Notary Association is a good first step but we need to go slowly so that we don't lose sight of why notarizations are done, which is fraud prevention and validation of signature. 

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There are three main ways in which a notary can verify the identity of someone BEFORE they notarize a document with that  signature: ID cards, personal knowledge, and using credible identifying witnesses. California, where I am commissioned, only allows ID cards and credible identifying witnesses. Other states may allow all three methods which are described below. (Notaries: check the laws in your state to see what's allowed). 
...continue reading "Who Are You? The ways a notary identifies signers."

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In this day and age, we need to make sure that we are all protected from those unscrupulous business folks who will try to cheat us out of what we deserve. This is where a notary comes in handy. A notary can protect you from fraud. I once won a contest for a free copy of software. In order to claim my prize, I had to sign a document and have it notarized. The contest folks wanted to make sure that the correct person got the software and that I was who I said I was. Not just anyone could get the prize because I had to "prove" who I was. ...continue reading "Who needs an Notary? YOU DO!"

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I recently read an interesting article by the National Notary Association on correcting journal entries: http://ow.ly/eAiJ30932cj. It mentioned some good ways to correct mistakes and suggested that you TAKE YOUR TIME in doing the entries in order to avoid mistakes.

After reading the article I realized that when you are crossing out mistaken information, it would be a good idea to have a small straight-edge to make it a smooth cross-out. I'm going to invest in a small ruler the next time I'm at the office supply store.

We have a responsibility to do our job well and smoothly. Making sure our journal entries are clear, correctly done, and legible is part of being a good notary. Here's hoping you have a LOT of journal entries to make, they are all clear and easily read.