Notarial practice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Notarial practice - Essay Example Thus, the Attorney General of Hawaii, which oversees the notarial practice in that state, strongly warns notaries against performing the notarial act unless they are absolutely satisfied that the document they are certifying is true and correct. This calls for the trained eye of a newspaper editor who is quick to spot grammatical errors, misspelled names and places and reports initiated by PR hacks. If such inaccuracies slip through the editor's attention, he and his newspaper will have a price to pay. The consequences are worse for a notary who mistakenly validates or notarizes an untruthful and incomplete document. Once the document up for certification is determined to be above board, the next logical step for the notary is to ascertain the identity, authenticity and will of the person who will sign the document. The cardinal rule in notarial practice is that the document's signatory must appear in person before the notary. The law is quite equivocal in this regard. In the US state of Maryland, for example, its Secretary of State expressly forbids the notarization of the signature of a person who has not appeared before the notary. If the notary has personal knowledge of the signer, this makes his job a lot easier. In such a case, his personal guarantee of the identity and authenticity of the person is embodied in the notarial clause that says: "'John Doe is known to me to be the person described in and who executed the foregoing instrument." If the notary has no personal knowledge of the signer, it is his responsibility to check the person's identity. The law is so stern about this identification process that it is not enough that the signatory to the document is known to the notary personally or makes an appearance before the notary. Common sense dictates that you cannot always trust the intentions of even people of your acquaintance. They may be what they say they are, or sign the document in the presence of the notary, but are they entering into the notarial act on their own free will' Don't they harbor any mental reservations about the document' It is the responsibility of the notary to find this out. On the effort to determine the identity of the person involved, it behooves the notary to double check the person's identity through a "competent evidence of identity." This refers to a valid identification document issued by a legally constituted establishment or agency bearing the photograph and signature of the individual. (Supreme Court of the Philippines) An evidence of identity that could satisfy a notary is a driver's license, a passport, a social security card or a voter's ID. But in the notarial imperative, even these documents do not by themselves constitute a complete and competent evidence of identity. The possibility always exists that the identification document being presented to a notary may be forged or adulterated. It takes an expert eye nowadays to detect the difference between an authentic document and a well-executed forgery. So to be absolutely sure, a good notary seeks a match between the picture in the identification document and the actual appearance of his client, and between the signature in the ID and the signature the person executes in the