What is the usual use case for such an operation? Are they shady?
Why would it be shady depending on the time of day that they do their services if they do them correctly? All they have to do is verify documents and signatures and provide certification for it. Lots of businesses may need them sometimes for very tight schedules. Many businesses especially in logistics run 24 hours a day.
It wouldn’t be shady if they did their job correctly, but I don’t know if they all do their job correctly. I am ignorant as to the certifications required for such a business and the varying levels of legitimacy of signed witnesses. When I type “notary public” into google for my area I get a lot of these “mobile” “24/hour” deals that set off automatic “fly-by-night” operation alarm bells in my mind. But perhaps they are used all the time in certain businesses? Which ones? I am curious.
ETA: it makes sense that one would be cautious, given that notaries can be used for some pretty important paperwork…
One reason for the “mobile” is for housebound people, or those in hospitals or nursing homes. It’s not only businesses that use notaries. People need them for loan documents, power-of-attorney forms, all sorts of documents having to so with divorce, separation and custody, passport applications for children, some consent forms.
Another possible reason for the “mobile” is that in NY, a notary can only charge $2 per notarization- but they can charge an additional fee for travel.
As far as legitimacy goes- all notaries do is verify that the person signing Albert Jones on a document really is Albert Jones ( and generally has ID to prove it). They may administer an oath, but the notarization does not mean that the contents of the document are true or anything like that.
About the shadiness: I guess many people who need a notary public just want the guy to put a stamp on a document. The notaries public don’t provide legal advice or review draft documents (in Germany they do, but there they are fully qualified lawyers) - the texts submitted to them have been drafted, reviewed, and agreed upon by others who want to be a party to the transaction (or their legal counsel). All the notary public is required for is put a certifying seal or stamp on the thing because some applicable law might say that the document needs to have that seal as a formal requirement to be enforceable. If that’s the case, there is no quality of wok issue involved - all you need is a notary public who is legaly authorised to provide this certification. And sometimes you might need it quick.
For some of my WTC worker paperwork, I needed a Notary Public STAT (because I’d nearly blown a registration deadline). Fortunately, I happened to be in my office and bumped into one of the retired local cops I worked with. Thinking “hey, local cops know EVERYTHING about the area,” I asked where I could find on on short notice (I had about an hour left to get the paperwork in).
He opened his desk drawer and produced the coveted embosser… there are Notaries in our midst… and they look like normal people… and they pop up where you least expect it… 
And all this means that whenever you hear or read about someone saying, “and I have a notarized document that proves my case,” they’re either a scammer or delusional.
A notarized signature says nothing at all about the contents. Many notaries won’t even look at the contents. All they care about is whether you can prove you are who you say you are and that you sign in their presence.
A former boss of mine runs such an operation, and she does quite well with it. Much of her business happens after hours, and it occasionally involves emergency situations, such as after-hours hospital and nursing home admissions that require a notary for living wills and powers of attorney. She’s also on standby at some apartment complexes and a few real estate offices, where she notarizes leases and closing documents. Once in a while, she’ll get a phone call from someone who needs a notary, and who doesn’t have the time to go to one during the day. Her value is that a) she’s available 24/7 and b) she’ll go where her services are required. That she can charge a premium makes it worth her time to be available like that.
Exactly. As a notary all I do is check ID, make sure the signature matches and verify same. I am not even looking at the paperwork as it has nothing to do with the process. My job is to certify that a specific person was in front of me, produced ID or is personally known and signed the paperwork.
That’s it.
Does each notarizer have an individualized stamp that traces back to them? Can they be summoned as witnesses in court?
I’ve no idea about summoning them in court but every notarization I’ve seen in Illinois has the person’s name as part of the stamp.
Notaries are used for loan documents quite frequently at odd hours. I remember very well the panic in trying to get a client to sign before a certain deadline in order for my bonuses to kick in.
For example, I had 11 loans already completed as of Dec 28, 2005. The 12th loan would push me into a different level and meant a $10,000+ bonus, but the woman absolutely stated she could not make it to a notary by the 30th to sign the documents. Well, I had a notary go to her - at 3am. It worked for both of them, and the premium price charged was a pittance compared to getting the deal done.
A notary has a state ID number and must be bonded. Yes, I have been called into court to verify a signature on a disputed will.
From working in the ER, I know that notaries public are used for Title-36 (T-36) paperwork, which is used to hold suicidal/homicidal people against their will for medical reasons (not arrest). As such, we had several people who worked in the registration department that were notaries, as well as one of our charge nurses (although she couldn’t notarize if she was working in the department for that shift) and a few other people throughout the hospital. Still, there would be nights where there would be ‘pending’ T-36’s that would be in police custody but not legally held yet and we had to locate a notary at odd hours. I remember a rent-a-mailbox place near the hospital that had one always on staff and were open to 11, plus if you ever got desperate there was always one at the juvenile detention facility (both of which meant extra legwork for the officer). We never used a mobile notary that I was aware of, but that might be a side effect of being too small of a town to really support such a venture.
Ironically, members of the bar in Florida may not be notaries.
Well, I got some stuff notarized today in this manner. Met someone at a Starbucks to do it (which I would have thought was pretty ‘sketchy’ before y’all learned me). Makes a lot more sense to me now, thanks!