What is NOTARY PUBLIC? What does NOTARY PUBLIC mean? NOTARY PUBLIC meaning, definition & explanation

a notary public or notary or public

notary of the common-law is a public

officer constituted by law to serve the

public and on contentious matters

usually concerned with the state's deeds

powers of attorney and foreign and

international business and notaries main

functions are to administer rosid

affirmations take affidavits and

statutory declarations witness and

authenticate the execution of certain

classes of documents take

acknowledgments of Deeds and other

conveyances protest notes and Bills of

exchange provide notice of foreign

drafts prepare marine or ships protests

in cases of damage provide

exemplification zand material copies and

perform certain other official acts

depending on the jurisdiction any such

act is known as a notarization the term

notary public only refers to common law

notaries and should not be confused with

civil law notaries with the exceptions

of Louisiana Puerto Rico Quebec whose

private law is based on civil law and

British Columbia whose material

tradition stems from Scrivener notary

practice a notary public in the rest of

the United States and most of Canada has

powers that are far more limited than

those of civil law or other common law

notaries both of whom are qualified

lawyers admitted to the bar such

notaries may be referred to as notaries

at law or lawyer notaries therefore at

common law material service is

distinctly different from the practice

of law and giving legal advice and

preparing legal instruments is forbidden

to lay notaries such as those appointed

throughout most of the United States of

America notaries are appointed by a

government authority such as a court or

lieutenant governor or by a regulating

body often known as a society or Faculty

of notaries public for lawyer notaries


maybe for life while a notaries are

usually commissioned for a briefer term

with the possibility of renewal in most

common law countries appointments and

their number for a given material

district are highly regulated however

since the majority of American notaries

are lay persons who provide officially

required services commission numbers are

not regulated which is part of the

reason why there are far more notaries

in the United States than in other

countries 4.5 million vs. aprox 740 in

England and Wales and aprox 1250 in

Australia and New Zealand furthermore

all US and some Canadian material

functions are applied to domestic

affairs and documents we're fully

systematized attestations of signatures

and acknowledgement of Deeds are a

universal requirement for document

authentication by contrast outside North

American common-law jurisdictions

material practice is restricted to

international legal matters or where a

foreign jurisdiction is involved and

almost all notaries are also qualified

lawyers for the purposes of

authentication most countries require

commercial or personal documents which

originate from or are signed in another

country to be notarized before they can

be used or officially recorded or before

they can have any legal effect to these

documents a notary afix is a notorious

certificate which attests to the

execution of the document usually by the

person who appears before the notary

known as an appear or Constituent u.s.

in places where lawyer notaries are the

norm a notary may also draft legal

instruments known as material acts or

deeds which have probative value and

executory force as they do in civil law

jurisdictions originals or secondary

originals are then filed and stored in

the notaries archives or protocol

notaries are generally required to

undergo special training in the

performance of their duties some must

also first serve as an apprentice before

being commissioned or licensed to

practice there

in many countries even licensed lawyers

for example barristers our solicitors

must follow a prescribed specialized

course of study and be mentored for two

years before being allowed to practice

as a notary for example British Columbia

England however notaries public in the

u.s. of which the vast majority are

laypeople require only a brief training

seminar and are expressly forbidden to

engage in any activities that could be

construed as the unlicensed practice of

law unless they are also qualified

attorneys material practice is

universally considered to be distinct

and separate from that of an attorney

solicitor / barrister in England and

Wales there is a course of study for

notaries which is conducted under the

auspices of the University of Cambridge

and the Society of notaries of England

and Wales in the state of Victoria

Australia applicants for appointment

must first complete a graduate diploma

of material practice which is

administered by the sir Zelman Cowen

Centre in Victoria University Melbourne

in by yury de chol jurisdictions such as

South Africa or Louisiana the office of

notary public is a legal profession with

educational requirements similar to

those for attorneys many even have

Institutes of higher learning that offer

degrees in material law therefore

despite their name notaries public in

these jurisdictions are in effect civil

law notaries