Ask Roxy is a public service blog from the Law Offices of Roxanne Sher Olson (www.roxanneolson.com). Roxanne is an attorney in Santa Cruz, CA. Email your questions to askroxy@roxanneolson.com
The purpose of notarization is to deter fraud.
A notary complies with a statuary method to determine the identity of the individual that signed a document and, as needed, administers oaths. This greatly increases the reliability of the signature.
Although there may be other ways to prove that someone signed a document, a notarization is a clean, cost-effective method. In many places notarization is required by statute for certain documents (deeds, mortgages, power of attorneys), but it is a good practice for any important document. If the document is ever in dispute in a lawsuit the notarization provides a significant procedural advantage because it is “self-authenticating” meaning that the signer doesn’t have to take the stand and swear that he signed it before the court will accept it into evidence. You can imagine how useful this is if the signer is dead or otherwise unavailable.
What can a notary do for you? The scope of a notary’s authority varies a little from state to state, but here are the two main examples of tasks a notary can perform for you:
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