Someone called me for my California Apostille Service over the weekend. He had 3 documents that had been notarized by a Notary Public that he used a few days ago. This Notary completed a "Certification Of Copy By Document Custodian" for 3 documents of the client. This Notary made a whole bunch of mistakes.
The first mistake that I noticed was that 2 of the notarized documents did not have the complete Notary seal- the seal of the State of California was totally missing from one of them. Also, I noticed that the client- the person who was certifying the copy of the documents- had not even signed the documents. Not one. Finally, I noticed that the Jurat statement on the documents said, "Personally known to me or proved to me on the basis of satisfactory evidence...." Apparently the Notary had not heard about the new Notary laws that went into effect in California on January 1, 2008. Needless to say, I had to help this client out with more things than he had planned. This is just one example of how it really is important for Notaries to keep up with their training, and to always be aware of the laws and practices. It also shows that just because someone is a Notary Public doesn't mean that they know what they are doing. Frankly, if I were choosing a Notary Public or any other professional, I would want to use one who I would be fairly sure that they know what they are doing.
I'm a full-time Notary Public, I'm in the National Notary Association, and I perform Notary work each and every week- if I don't do any Notary work during the week, then I'm out of town on vacation. I don't let my Notary skills get stale- I work at it. I always check and double-check my work before I release it to my clients. If I ever encounter some situation where I'm not sure of the procedure in performing a notarization, I consult my Notary handbook (from the NNA), the NNA or a Notary friend.
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