Notary Public

AuthorJeffrey Lehman, Shirelle Phelps

Page 270

A public official whose main powers include administering oaths and attesting to signatures, both important and effective ways to minimize FRAUD in legal documents.

The origin of notaries public can be traced to ancient Rome, where a notarius was held in high regard as legal counsel. During that era only the few people who knew how to write were qualified to serve as a notarius. A notarius wrote legal documents, including contracts and wills, and retained them for safekeeping. A small fee was charged for those services, a tradition that continued to modern times.

As colonists settled in the New World, most transactions that required an oath or signature attestation were handled in the courts. During that period the few notaries who existed were appointed or elected in a manner similar to the election or appointment of judges. However, as trade with Europe began, the demand for notaries increased because of the large number of bills of exchange that needed to be witnessed. The authority to appoint notaries was transferred to the states, where the SECRETARY OF STATE (or another nonjudicial office) usually acted as the appointer.

In 1983 the Commission on Uniform State Laws passed the Uniform Law on Notarial Acts (14 U.L.A. 125), which covered nearly all aspects of the office of notary public, from the definition of duties to appointment policies. As of the early 2000s, most states use this model law as a basis for their own notary public statutes. These laws vary from state to state, and the amount of power that a state gives to notaries can depend on its history. For example, Louisiana was a French possession and used a civil code rather than a COMMON LAW. It gives its notaries broad powers?almost equal to those of a JUSTICE OF THE PEACE. In Louisiana notaries' powers include making "inventories, appraisements, and partitions; ? all contracts and instruments of writing; [and holding] family meetings and meetings of creditors ?" (La. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 35:2 [1996]).

California also gives notaries additional powers, allowing them to "demand acceptance and payment of foreign and inland bills of exchange, or promissory notes, to protest them for nonacceptance and nonpayment" (Cal. Gov't. Code § 8205 [West 1997]).

In some cases the notary responsible for a transaction has an invalid commission because of a technicality. If the notary already witnessed and completed the transaction before...

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