Notary Certificates, Notary Verbiage & Notary Wording
Notary terminology is sometimes confusing, so there are a few things to remember. There are different types of common notarizations. Acknowledgments and Jurats require certificate wording (notary wording), and Oaths and Affirmations could be purely verbal. A Jurat requires that an Oath or Affirmation accompany the signing and certificate wording (notary wording, notary verbiage). An Acknowledgment is purely paperwork in most cases, however, I have seen even an Acknowledged signature have an accompanying Oath. 80% of notarizations are Acknowledged signatures, while roughly 19% are Jurats, and the remaining 1% would be a mixture of other types of less common notary acts.
Acknowledged Signatures
The 2011 & 2012 notary certificate for an acknowledged signature includes a venue (documentation of county & state), the name of the notary, the name of the signer, the fact that the signer appeared before the notary and acknowledged signing a particular document. The current notary verbiage on this form should include the date of the signing, and the signature and official seal of the notary as well. The actual notary verbiage differs from state to state. California notary verbiage is a bit different than Ohio notary verbiage. Also, Ohio has different types of acknowledgments such as corporate acknowledgments and an attorney in fact acknowledgment. You should ideally research your state’s notary verbiage to see what it is. If you visit our find a notary page, there are links to states, and on the state pages, you can find a lot of information about acknowledgments and jurats in those states. We have detailed information for Florida, Illinois, Michigan, California, Arizona, Ohio, and a few other states as well.
Jurat Signatures
The notary certificate for a jurat signature / oath has changed in many states. It is/was normal to have a venue, and then say, “Subscribed and sworn to before me (name of notary) by (name of signer) on (date).” Then there would be a signature of the notary, and a place for the official notary seal. Jurat verbiage also can differ from state to state so please look it up on google.
Certificate forms.
Notary certificates can be notary wording / notary verbiage that is embedded on the last page of a document, or sometimes within a document if there are intermediary signatures. If the notarial wording is NOT included, you must add a loose certificate and attach it to the document (by stapling).
Filling out the forms.
Many notaries don’t understand how to fill out notary wording on certificate forms. Let’s say a guy named Paul Solomon is the signer. If the form says,
(note: this is not real Florida notary wording — I am making it up for educational purposes)
In real life, the Florida notary certificate is much simpler than this, but in other states there are cross outs that the notary needs to make.
State of Florida
County of Brevard
On 8-11-2010 before me John Doe, notary public, the foregoing document was acknowledged before me by Paul Solomon, who acknowledges signing the document in his/her/their capacity(ies).
(notary seal)
In this example, it is the notary’s job to cross out the “her” and “their”, and the “ies” in capacities. More than half of notarizations that I have seen were done by notaries who omitted to do the cross-outs.
You might also like:
Notary boiler plate wording
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=2432
Notary Public 101 – a free notary course
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=19493
Notary Verbiage & Notary Wording
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=18854
