“Did You Know….?”
Florida Facts About Notaries, Their Commission, and Their DutiesPublished November 4, 2025
What or who grants new and renewing notary commissions to a person?
Depending on the state, the individual or entity that grants a notary commission to a person is commonly referred to as the “commissioning officer,’’ “appointing officer” or the “commissioning entity” or “commissioning office,” as appropriate.
Across the U.S., state notary laws dictate the specific individual or authority empowered to grant a new or renewal notary public commission. That is, Florida law dictates that the Governor actually appoints each notary public to office. In other states, that power might belong to the Secretary of State, a county clerk, the state’s Department of Licensing, and so on.
Are the powers of a notary public the same in all states?
Certain notarial acts are so common and necessary that notaries in all states are authorized to perform them. These are: (1) acknowledgments; (2) verifications on oath or affirmation (also called “jurats”); and (3) verbal oaths or affirmations (for example, when someone takes a verbal oath when being sworn-into public office).
Other notarial acts a Florida notary may perform include certifying/attesting photocopies of certain documents; verifying vehicle identification numbers, certifying contents of safe deposit boxes, and noting protests. In addition, Florida is one of just five states that authorizes its notaries to perform marriage ceremonies with no further authorization.
Can notaries in Florida charge any fee they want?
For performing any notarial act, Florida notaries may charge up to the fee(s) specified by their law and/or administrative rules ($10 per notarial act and $30 for performing a marriage ceremony). Charging excessive fees for a notarial act violates the notary’s governing law and/or administrative rules, and leads to disciplinary sanctions under those laws and/or administrative rules.
Unless the practice is specifically prohibited, Notaries may charge additional fees for expenses such as mileage for traveling to perform a notarial act. Any such fees must be disclosed and agreed-to in advance, and line-itemed separately from the statutory fee the notary may charge for a specific notarial act. Notaries who charge fees should always discuss them completely, and be sure the client understands them, before proceeding with a notarial act.
Florida notaries are not required to maintain a “fee book” in which they record all fees charged, but it is a sound and helpful business practice. Use of the American Society of Notaries’ All-States Recordbook of Notarial Acts provides credible evidence of the fees a notary charged, and greatly simplifies the chore of calculating and reporting income earned from performing notarizations.
Are notaries public required to receive training?
Persons applying for their initial Florida notary public commission are required to obtain state-approved training. ASN offers a comprehensive, state-approved training course, online, that notary candidates may take anytime, anywhere to satisfy this important requirement.
Why does a notary public want me to sign their “register” or “journal”?
While recordbook (journal) use by a notary public is not required in Florida, many notaries choose to use one anyway because of the valuable evidence they provide of every notarization performed. The information provided in a recordbook entry for a specific notarial act is credible evidence of the facts of that notarization, and is admissible in a court of law. Even when journals (recordbooks) are not required, they are strongly recommended as an indispensable tool for notaries public.
Why does notarization of a document matter?
For centuries, notarial acts have been essential to the function of commerce and personal affairs. Documents executed (signed) before a notary are presumed to be validly executed and factual, unless proven otherwise.
The ongoing value of notarization is proven in how little a notarial act’s execution and assurances have changed… even though today’s approved methods of notarizing include not only ink-signed paper documents, but electronic documents and signatures involving physically present and remotely present signers.
Notarizations assure relying parties that the persons or entities named in a document indeed appeared before a notarial officer, were identified, and signed and/or acknowledged their voluntary signing of the document. Notarization also enables a named signer of a document to swear or affirm that the document is true.
Because the assurances provided by notarization are so important but also so fundamentally simple, the effects of a properly executed notarization are the same whether the underlying document is paper or electronic. This is a remarkable fact about a process that has been relied upon for centuries.
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