What Is A Notary Service?

A Notary Public is a state-appointed official of integrity who serves the public as an impartial witness in a number of official fraud-deterrent activities relating to the signing of significant documents. These formal acts are known as notarizations or notarial acts. Notaries are publicly commissioned as “ministerial” officials, which means they are expected to follow written rules without using significant personal judgement, as a “judicial” official would.

Notarized Documents

Notarized documents are those that have had their validity verified by a notary public. Notarization comprises the witnessing and recording of document signings to ensure that the procedure is not fraudulent and that the documents can be trusted by the authorities that requested them.

Notary’s Duties

The role of a notary is to confirm that all signatures on a document are genuine. This is accomplished by a series of meticulous checks:

Identity verification: A notary requires identity from anyone signing a document and keeps records of the identifying documents each person gives.

Willing signers: Notaries are expected to be on the lookout for evidence of coercion. Even if you don’t agree with what’s in a document, are you signing voluntarily, or are you being forced to?

Capable of making sound decisions: A notary should ensure that signers are in a position to really understand what they are signing and have the legal capacity to sign. The notary cannot notarize a document if the person is inebriated, highly drugged, or otherwise unable to understand what is going on.

Why Notaries Are Necessary

A notarized document confirms that you are the person signing the paper. As a result, the main objective of notarizing a document is to prevent document fraud and identity theft by prohibiting someone from presenting a fake document. A notarized letter certified by a notary public also helps to protect persons’ rights who may otherwise be exploited, and a lot of court actions may be avoided if the document of a transaction is certified by a notary.

Check out the infographic below which takes a look into Notary Services and what you need to know about them.