When You Can’t Stamp – Conditions For Turning Down A Notarization
Notaries fulfill a critical role in our society. If you’ve taken up the stamp yourself, you’ve already gone through plenty of training to familiarize yourself with your responsibilities. It’s always handy to review the situations in which you should turn down a notarization, though. Handling these delicate incidents with care is an important part of your job.
Know Your Statutes And Regulations
While the broad responsibilities of notaries are the same all over the country, specific regulations vary from state to state. For instance, in some states (like California), employers can set restrictions on what employees can and cannot notarize during business hours. In other states, notaries have an ironclad obligation to provide their services to qualified citizens. Make sure you’re thoroughly familiar with the rules governing notaries in your own state so that you’re in full compliance.
Remember that part of your responsibility as a notary is to document the work you perform. If you refuse to perform a notarization or simply have misgivings about one or more points of a particular document, make sure you record the event in detail in your notarial journal.
General Issues That Can Prevent Notarization
Most of the common reasons to turn down a notarization are fairly obvious. In situations where you can’t verify a signer’s identity, communicate with a signer (e.g. language barriers), or where one or more parties are absent, it is both your right and obligation to turn away the signers. You should also refrain from notarizing documents that involve you or your close family members or those that subject you to conflict of interest in some other way. Incomplete documents or improperly formatted ones are grounds for a refusal as well.
There are more questionable areas where you are within your rights to refuse service. If you know or suspect that the documents presented to you represent a fraudulent transaction, or you suspect that one of the signers is being coerced into signing, you have a right to refuse service. Document such cases extensively in your journal, as these are the sort of circumstances that may be investigated by authorities later.
Hot-Button Topics
As public servants, notaries have an obligation to perform their jobs without regard to their personal feelings and biases. This means you can’t refuse service to a client based on their gender, race, religion, or orientation. Modern society can present you with many different documents for notarization whose content makes you uncomfortable. Examples include documents that touch on same-sex marriage, euthanasia, abortion, and legal marijuana.
In situations like this, you have to bear in mind that your responsibilities do not extend to interpreting the laws which govern your state. Set aside your personal bias and remember that your notarial services do not in any way serve as an endorsement of laws you don’t agree with.
Refusing To Serve With Grace
It’s very easy to think about refusing a notarization when you confine yourself to hypothetical scenarios. Matters become more complicated when you’re facing an actual signer and need to turn them away, though. Tact is your strongest ally in these situations.
Remember that you don’t have any obligation to expose yourself to risk. If you’re turning down a notarization because you suspect foul play, you’re entitled to give a less contentious explanation, such as being unfamiliar with the type of documents involved. Fortunately, these situations are few and far between. With most refusals, you’ll have a clear legal basis for refusing to notarize. Explain this as thoroughly and professionally as possible.
Turning away signers who want your services isn’t the easiest part of your job as a notary. As long as you maintain a clear grasp of your obligations and their limits and behave professionally, though, you should be able to keep both yourself and your clients within the bounds of the law.
Jeff Wise is a health care professional who specializes in senior care. If you are looking for premium in-home care for your loved one, visit MiamiHomeCareServices.com today.
