What exactly does being a notary entail? I went to one once to verify I was me when I signed a document, and I had a couple of friends sell a car through one. Is that all a notary is? Someone who says “hey I’ll vouch for this guy?”
How much training do they have? How do they make sure a prospective notary isn’t dishonest? Or don’t they? I’m sure you could really screw someone over with that little rubber stamp.
In the manned space program’s early days, NASA spent $1 million
to develop a pen that wrote upside down. The Russians used a pencil.
In Ohio nototries take a very simple test, pay a small fee and a rudimentry background check is done.
A notory is supposed to be a uninterested third party witness to documents being signed.
That being said, I once bought a car and the guys wife notorized it. Said car turned out to have a lien on it! Well that turns out to be felony fraud here, they paid off the lien immediatly( next day), seems they were juggiling debts to pay off other loans and needed the car money temporarily so that that they could get another loan and then pay off the car lien with thier new loan money.
watch what you say
or they’ll be calling
you a radical,
a liberal,fanatical
a criminal…
It’s about the same in Illinois. Most larger offices seem to have at least one working there to stamp documents without having to run down to the currency exchange or where ever else it is one goes to find a notary. In fact, all the notaries I’ve ever known (ok… a total of three) have been so due to their job positions (usually involving either payroll or comptroller).
“I guess one person can make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn’t.”
That’s pretty much it, at least in the US. I think that notaries must post a fidelity bond, but its fairly minimal. (I’m not at the office, so I can’t check the details at the moment.)
In some other countries (Mexico, for example), notaries have more responsibilities and status.
I know a woman at work who is a notary. I work at a social service agency (I work with adults with developmental disabilities). This woman heads up our adoption and respite program. She became a notary because when you want to adopt, you have to have this background check and apparently, most of the documents need to be notarized. So to save time and money, she just went and became a notary herself.
It came in handy for me once when one of my clients needed his Birth Certificate and Social Security card in order to get a State ID (he has no contact with his parents, and getting those documents is darn near impossible unless you can prove who you are). So, she notarized his signature (which, due in part to his disability, looks like a five year old’s writing), which basically said that she was vouching (sp?) that he was who he said he was. A notary SHOULD see a person’s ID before notarizing anything, but she’d known him half his life.
I know that was wordy, but it was the best example I had.
Basically, what everyone else said is correct, according to my best friend (who is a notary). She became one when she became a banker. They used to have that cool embossed stamp but now just have a rubber one. She gave me some pj’s at Christmas with the stamp all over 'em as a joke.
Prairie Rose
If you’re not part of the solution you’re just scumming up the bottom of the beaker.
I’ve been a notary in two states. In neither was a test required; FL required a bond (typically handled by one of a couple dozen companies specializing in this), GA did not.
Powers of notaries vary from state-to-state. Notaries usually are able to administer oaths, take acknowledgements, and certifying true copies. In FL they can solemnize marriages; in GA, they cannot.
As to conflict of interest, FL law says:
"A notary public may not notarize a signature on a document if the person whose signature is to be notarized is the spouse, son, daughter, mother, or father of the notary public. "
and:
“A notary public may not notarize a signature on a document if the notary public has a financial interest in or is a party to the underlying transaction”
Interestingly, FL law provides: "Literal translation of the phrase “Notary Public” into a language other than English is prohibited in an advertisement for notarial services. "
just a guess, but the reason for the Florida law may be to avoid consumer confusion. In the civil law systems, a notary is a type of lawyer, not just a document-certifier. Don’t know what the Spanish word for a notary-lawyer is (in French it’s “notaire”).