Loose Notarial Certificates
When to Use a Separate (“Loose”) Notarial CertificatePublished August 2024
Notaries in every state are required by law to complete a “notarial certificate” for the signature notarial acts they perform. The “certificate” is the notary’s signed (and usually stamped), official statement about the facts of the notarial act that the notary just performed.
Typically, a document requiring a signature notarization includes the notarial certificate somewhere near the signature line for the document signer. If that notarial certificate’s format complies with the laws and rules of the notary’s state of commission, the notary simply records the facts of the notarial act in that certificate, signs the certificate, and stamps or seals it.
Occasionally, a notary cannot use the existing certificate on the document because it does not comply with the legal requirements of the notary’s state of commission or appointment. Or, a customer wants their signature on a document to be notarized, but there is no notarial certificate language on the document indicating which signature notarial act the notary should perform.
If there is sufficient room, and if state law doesn’t prohibit doing so, a notary may handwrite or stamp notarial certificate wording on a document. (Florida, for example, prohibits a notary from changing/adding anything in a document after it has been signed by anyone.)
The key requirement is that the notary has sufficient information to know which notarial act is intended to be performed. For this knowledge, the notary can review the document’s existing certificate or ask the document signer or a party relying on the document transaction.
If there isn’t enough room to handwrite or stamp notarial certificate wording on a document, the notary may attach to the document a separate sheet with the correct notarial certificate wording.
This is when preprinted, separate (or “loose”) notarial certificates are extremely helpful to a notary. American Society of Notaries offers preprinted notarial certificates in a convenient, padded format, with language for the most commonly performed signature notarial acts as well as for copy certifications.
When a notary must add appropriate notarial certificate wording—whether it’s to replace noncompliant wording or missing wording—the notary should “cancel” the document’s existing certificate by drawing a diagonal line through it, initialing the line, and making a note in the notary’s journal record about replacing the existing certificate.
In the notary’s journal entry for the notarial act, the notary should also add a note that the notary added notarial certificate wording to the document upon input from the named signer or a party relying on the signed document.
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