Showing posts with label advice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label advice. Show all posts

Thursday, August 27, 2020

...and Don't Date it, Either

 As I talked about in my previous post...please do not sign your document before our meeting and also, don't date it, either. The date must correlate with the date I stamp and seal your document. Meaning, if I notarize your document today, August 27th, 2020 your document date can not be August 26th, 28th, or any other date in the past or the future. 

IF you did date your document and it's not current, I will cross your date out and put the current date.


The exception to this is when a date is within the document. For instance, you may have a statement describing an incident like an accident or something else, relative to the document. The contents of the document are not important to the notary, but rather the date of the document itself is.


Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Do Not Sign Your Document!

 I can't tell you the number of times I've been presented with a document to notarize that has already been signed by the customer. Don't do that! 

The sole purpose of my notary services is to vouch for you. My stamp and seal on your document says, "I verified your identity and witnessed your signature." In order for me to do that, I need to watch you sign the document, along with seeing and documenting your ID. It also avoids messy paperwork or having to reprint and start over.

I know you can be anxious about your paperwork. I know it's important to you and you just want to get it done but you want to get it done properly. The way to ensure that it is done properly is to not sign your document before you bring it to me.

Here's what you can do, though. Fill out what you can...your name, address, anything the document is asking you but avoid the signature line and save that part for us to do together. 

Happy Client - Happy Notary


Tuesday, February 25, 2020

Notaries and the Unauthorized Practice of Law

Unless a notary is also a licensed attorney, he or she may not give legal advice or accept fees for legal advice. In civil-law jurisdictions, and in most common-law jurisdictions outside the United States, notaries are essentially lawyers who have extensive training in the drafting of documents. However, American common-law notaries do not have any legal authority unless they happen to also be a licensed attorney. As a result, it would be considered the unauthorized practice of law for a non-attorney notary to give legal advice.

Many notaries often worry about inadvertently engaging in the unauthorized practice of law. This confusion is understandable because although notaries are not attorneys, non-attorneys can provide some legal services. Generally, a non-lawyer can sell blank legal forms, act as a transcriber (by typing information completed in writing by a client), sell general printed legal information, and perform their notary services for the fees established by law. A non-attorney cannot, however, advise a client how to complete a legal form or make changes to a legal form completed by a client.

Of course, notaries employed in the legal field, such as paralegals and legal secretaries, often draft or edit legal documents within the scope of their employment. In this case, these actions would not constitute the unauthorized practice of law because the person is not acting as a notary when performing these tasks but is acting under the supervision of a licensed attorney.

Always consult your state's laws regarding what a non-lawyer can do. Be sure to exercise caution when performing any act which might be construed as the unauthorized practice of law.

By Robert T. Koehler, a Contributing Writer with the American Association of Notaries, Inc.