jurat: Notarizing a Lease Agreement: acknowledgement or jurat? - 04/26/09 01:50 AM
I got a call yesterday from someone in Colorado Springs in need of a mobile notary to notarize a Lease Agreement.  When I arrived I asked to see the notary certificate on the document. 
Instead of the usual notarial wording, all it had was the word 'NOTARY'.
Apparently this was the place where the notary was supposed to do whatever it is that notaries do. 
 
The problem with this is that, notaries may not notarize a document unless it contains a notary certificate.  And a notary may not choose what type of notary certificate to add to a document.  This is … (1 comments)

jurat: Avoiding UPL, and still being able to 'give advice' - 01/04/09 09:08 PM
'I have a document that needs to be notarized.', is usually how the conversation will start.  I'll ask the caller what kind of document it is, and if it has notary wording on it.
I'm not concerned with the contents of the document. 
But I am concerned if this person has written the document themselves and wants me to notarize it. It's not a simple matter of getting out my stamp and stamping the document, which is the assumption a lot of people have.  A document that needs to be notarized can either require a jurat or an acknowledgement.  Unfortunately the person requesting the … (4 comments)