Notary Public Definitions & Glossary

ACKNOWLEDGMENT:  An acknowledgment is a notarial act in which a Notary certifies that a signer, whose identity is personally known to the Notary or is proven by satisfactory evidence, voluntarily signs a document for its stated purpose. The signer is not required to sign the document in the notary’s presence for an acknowledgment; the signer may pre-sign the document or may choose to sign it in your presence. Because you are attesting to the genuineness of the signature, you may not perform an acknowledgment that will be signed at a later time. Even if a document has been pre-signed, the document signer must be in the Notary’s presence at the time the Notary performs the notarization.

What Is An Acknowledgement Form?
The form most frequently completed by the notary public is the certificate of acknowledgment. In the certificate of acknowledgment, the notary public certifies:

 That the signer  personally appeared before the notary public on the date indicated in the county indicated.
 To the identity of the signer.
 That the signer acknowledged executing the document.

The certificate of acknowledgment must be completely filled out at the time the notary  public’s signature and seal are affixed. Notary can, and should fill out the acknowledgement form, to make sure it is done properly.

AFFIDAVIT:  A voluntary declaration of facts, written down and sworn to or affirmed by the declarant (“affiant”) before a Notary Public or other officer having the authority to administer an oath.

AFFIRMATION:  The act of affirming the truth of a document, not an oath. "I solemnly affirm and declare the foregoing to be a true statement..." Note that an affidavit may appear in two forms: a sworn affidavit with oath, or an affirmed affidavit with affirmation. Each has the same legal import. 

APOSTILLE: What Is An Apostille? An Apostille is an authentication of public official signatures on documents to be used outside the United States of America. Some countries only will recognize your Birth Certificate or other type of official document if is authenticated by the Secretary of State which the document was issued. This authentication can be an Apostille or a Certification. The country of destination will determine whether they require an Apostille or Certification.

COMMISSION AND COMMISSION CERTIFICATE: A commission certificate is the certificate issued by the Secretary of State’s Office to a Notary. The commission certificate is an individual’s proof that he or she has been commissioned as a Notary Public. (A.R.S. § 41-311(2)) The commission certificate shows the Notary’s name as it appears on the application form, the notary’s commission number, the issuance date, and the expiration date of the commission, as well as the Secretary of State’s name and signature.

COPY CERTIFICATION:  Copy certification is a notarial act in which the Notary certifies that the Notary made a photocopy of an original document that is neither a public record nor publicly recordable.

CREDIBLE IDENTIFYING WITNESS:   What Are "Credible Identifying Witnesses?"
When a signer is unable to present proper identification, the signer may be identified on the oath or affirmation of one or two credible identifying witnesses. If there is only one credible identifying witness, he or she must be personally known by the Notary, otherwise two credible identifying witnesses are required.

CREDIBLE PERSON: A credible person is a person who personally knows the signer and who either also personally knows the Notary or who presents satisfactory evidence of identity to the Notary. A "credible person" is also known as a "credible witness."

FINANCIAL OR BENEFICIAL  INTEREST IN THE TRANSACTION: You have financial interest in the transaction if you will gain (or lose) something of value in the transaction. You have beneficial interest in the transaction if the document will benefit you in some way. Family members are usually considered to have either a financial or beneficial interest in a transaction even if they are not specifically named in the document.

IMPARTIAL WITNESS: An impartial witness must have no conflict of interest. This means the Notary cannot be a "party to the transaction" or a "party to the instrument" and cannot have any financial or beneficial interest in the transaction, no matter how small.

INCOMPLETE DOCUMENT: An incomplete document is a document that has not been signed where a signature line is provided or where other obvious blanks appear in the document, or that lacks a notarial certificate.

JURAT:  A certification added to an affidavit or document stating when, where and before whom such affidavit was made. A jurat is a notarial act in which the Notary certifies that a signer, whose identity is personally known or is proven by satisfactory evidence, has made in the Notary’s presence a voluntary signature and has taken an oath or affirmation vouching for the truthfulness of the signed document. Some states refer to this as an affidavit. Anytime the words "sworn to before me" "subscribed and sworn to before be", or similar words appear in notarial language in the notarial certificate, you must perform a jurat. Because a signer is swearing/affirming that the information is true, there can be no blank spaces on a document.

NOTARIAL ACTS: There are four notarial acts that a notary can perform in California:

 Acknowledgments
 Jurats
 Copy Certifications
 Oaths or Affirmations

NOTARIAL CERTIFICATE: A notarial certificate is the part of, or attachment to, a notarized document for completion by the Notary that bears the notary’s signature and seal, and states the facts that are attested to by the Notary in a particular notarization.  The state and county where the notarization takes place is known as the “venue” and is also considered part of the notarial certificate.

NOTARIO PUBLICO: Is a "Notario Publico" The Same Thing As A United States Notary Public?
No. In Latin countries, the Notario Publico is a high-ranking official with considerable legal skills and training. Unlike a U.S. Notary, the Notario Publico drafts documents, provides legal advice, settles disputes and archives documents.

NOTARY PUBLIC: What Is A Notary Public?
A Notary is a sworn public servant who follows strict guidelines in identifying a person. They serve as an impartial witness in taking acknowledgements, administering oaths, affirmations and performing other acts authorized by California Law. Unless a Notary Public is a licensed attorney, they may not give legal advice, draft legal documents nor accept fees for legal advice. A Notary may not even advise a client what type of notarization a document requires. The notarial wording must be provided by the creator of the document.(Business & Professions Code § 6125).

OATH:  A solemn declaration, accompanied by a swearing to God or a revered person or thing, that one’s statement is true or that one will be bound to a promise. The person making the oath implicitly invites punishment if the statement is untrue or the promise is broken. 

PARTY TO THE INSTRUMENT: An instrument is the document, a signature on which you are notarizing. A party to the instrument is someone who is mentioned in the document either by name or by job title or classification or who would have some kind of beneficial or financial interest in the document. If you are a party to the instrument, then you have an interest in the transaction and are no longer an impartial witness; therefore you could not notarize a signature.

PARTY TO THE TRANSACTION: "Party to the instrument" means the same as "Party to the transaction."

PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE OF THE SIGNER BY THE NOTARY: Personal knowledge of the signer by the Notary means that the Notary has familiarity with an individual resulting from interactions with that person over a sufficient time to eliminate reasonable doubt that the individual has the identity claimed.

PROTEST: A Notary Public’s written statement that, upon presentment for payment or acceptance, a negotiable instrument was neither paid nor accepted.

SATISFACTORY EVIDENCE OF IDENTITY: Satisfactory evidence of identity means:

 At least one current form of identification issued by the United States government, or a state, or tribal government
  containing the following:
  - The individual’s photograph
  - The individual’s signature
  - The individual’s written physical description that includes height, weight, color of hair, and color of eyes.
 Personal knowledge of the signer by the notary;
 The oath or affirmation of a credible person who is personally known to the notary and who personally knows the signer; or
 The oath or affirmation of a credible person who personally knows the individual and who provides satisfactory evidence of identity.

VERIFICATION:  A formal declaration by which one swears to or affirms the truth of the statements in a document. Also, the statement of a Notary Public that the person appearing before the notary has been properly identified as being the person purported to be appearing.