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December 28, 2019

Alzheimer’s signings — how to determine whether to carry through or not?

Filed under: Hospital & Jail Signings — admin @ 11:07 pm

Let’s say you are at a hospital for a POA signing or Medical Directive signing. Let’s say that the signer has been officially diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Do you notarize or not? If you notarize, and the signing comes back to haunt you in court, the small fee you made will not be worth any significant risk of court time. However, if you can get the signer to describe the document, why they are signing it, who they are, who their relatives are, and who the president of the United States is, they are probably competent enough to sign.

Now, let’s say that a medical professional at the hospital advises you not to notarize for the patient due to this mental disease. The fact is that you are the Notary, and only you can decide the fate of the notarization. The main thing is to consider the risks, and how you can go about proving competency in a prudent way.

I would continue writing about this article, but I forgot what the topic was. Hmm.

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12 questions to ask for hospital notarizations
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A tale of four notaries at hospitals
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October 30, 2019

If you notarize a document, does that make it “legal”?

Filed under: Technical & Legal — admin @ 11:50 pm

If you notarize a document, does that make the document in question legal or official?

As far as I know in my layperson opinion, if a document will be used in a legal transaction or in court, it might be said to be a legal document.

Notarizing a will, or other document just makes it notarized. Being notarized it might be acceptable to a particular document custodian or might be more relevant in court. Deeds and Power of Attorney document by definition need to be notarized to be effective or be recorded.

Oh yes, and if a document hits its 18th birthday, then it is definitely legal and the document custodian should alert Quagmire from Family Guy of the event too, particularly if the document is female.

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October 25, 2019

How long does it take to fill in the journal entries for one loan?

Filed under: Journals — admin @ 11:47 pm

Many Notaries use the “cram it in” style of journal entries and claim that it saves time and that it is okay. But, there are several problems with it. First of all, what is the cram it in system of filling in your journal?

If you put multiple documents in on a single journal entry — that is what I call the “cram it in” journal entry style. Normally there is a single signer for these multiple docs on the entry, but some people put two which is even more crazy. Below are the problems associated with this wrongful technique.

1. Fees
Most states allow a Notary to charge a maximum fee per Notary act. If you put multiple Notary acts on a single journal line, you cannot document what you charged for each Notary act.

2. Notary Act Type
If you are notarizing multiple documents in a loan, traditionally there will be different Notary types. There will be acknowledgments for the Deeds and perhaps other documents and Jurats for the Affidavits. You cannot distinguish which document received which type of notarization if you use the cram it in method of journal entries.

3. Court Issues
If your signing goes to court, the signer could claim to not have authorized the notarization of any of the documents listed in your journal as you theoretically could be in cahutz with the Lender and could have added the names of more documents after the fact. It is rare to have an issue in court due to the cram it in method, but I have heard of two examples in my career about how it makes the court case a lot more confusing and you can’t prove that someone consented to be notarized. It can result in a situation that looks like fraud was likely. Why put yourself in that position?

4. Kosher Issues
It just isn’t kosher to add extra document names in a single journal entry. Proper journal entry procedure means one document and one signer per entry — that’s it.

SUMMARY
It is easier to just fill out the journal entries one by one. You might have to write the address many times. It might take about 45 seconds per entry, and with a loan of 12 notarized signatures you might spend 10 minutes total filling out the journal and another minute getting people to sign and thumbprint multiple times. That is about 8 minutes longer than the cram it in method and could save you lots of time in court after the fact. Additionally, if your state audits journals, it could save your career — a valid point to remember in California and in the future perhaps other regions!

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Travel fees vs. Notary fees in your journal
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=22612

Notary Public 101 – a comprehensive guide to journals
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=19511

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October 13, 2019

Seven Tips for Choosing a Lawyer in a Personal Injury Case

Filed under: Other Guest Bloggers — admin @ 10:43 am

Seven Tips for Choosing a Lawyer in a Personal Injury Case
When choosing a personal injury lawyer for your case, there are many things that you need to take into consideration. If you have been injured and want the compensation that you are entitled to, you need to find a lawyer that knows exactly how to win your case and has experience in similar cases. Here are seven tips for choosing a lawyer for your personal injury case.

Location
Before you focus on anything else, you need to make sure that the lawyer you want can practice within your area. For those who live in Pennsylvania, you need to find a trustworthy Lehigh Valley personal injury lawyer such as those who work at Trapani Law Firm.

Track History
If you want to know the likelihood of a lawyer winning your case, you need to check their track history and see how many cases they have won, as well as what these cases entailed. Finding a personal injury lawyer who wins the cases they take on is essential, but you should also be aware that some lawyers only decide to take on the cases they know they will win, meaning this is just one thing that you need to consider.

Relevant Experience
Experience provides you with a sense of stability and allows clients to check the track history and understand more about how a lawyer works. While all lawyers need to start somewhere, when dealing with a personal injury case it is best to stick to a lawyer with relevant experience.

Disciplinary Record
A disciplinary record is essentially what it says on the tin. This record can inform you of any complaints that the lawyer may have received and can also provide information such as if the lawyer has ever been disbarred or suspended. If you have already met with the lawyer and they are ticking the right boxes, it may be worth discussing with them what happened with a complaint they received and how they dealt with it. Unfortunately, clients can sometimes file a complaint even when the lawyer has done everything within their power to assist them, so it is best to determine the root cause of the complaint before ruling a lawyer out completely. You can find information regarding a disciplinary record about any lawyer online.

Practice Years
Those who have been in the profession for a long time will have great experience and will understand a personal injury case better than anyone. If your case is especially complex, finding a lawyer with many years of experience is even more important to enable you to win your case and gain the compensation that you deserve.

Reputation
Finding a personal injury lawyer with a good reputation means that you are more likely to trust them with your case. You can check reviews on most law firm websites and you may also be able to find reviews online. A personal injury lawyer who has a good reputation within the state may be able to get your case solved more quickly as they are known throughout the courts. Finding positive reviews from previous clients can enable you to feel more at ease as it can be hard to judge someone on a first meeting. You may also want to ask the personal injury lawyer upon your first meeting if they have any client testimonials for you to read through.

Focus
Personal injury cases are all unique, and so you may want to find a lawyer that has a special focus on your personal injury case. It may be that you were involved in a slip and fall accident and so finding a lawyer that has focused on similar cases is ideal. You can usually find this out on their website or by speaking to the lawyer directly.

Following these seven tips you can find a personal injury lawyer that is perfect for your needs and your case.

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September 22, 2019

When can you charge for an Oath?

Filed under: Technical & Legal — admin @ 10:32 pm

If an Oath is a separate and independent notary act, you can charge for it as far as I know — I swear!

But, I believe (and please comment below if I am wrong) that you may not charge extra for an Oath on a Deposition, court appearance, or for credible witnesses.

When using credible witnesses for an Acknowledgment, you just charge for the Acknowledgment, but not for the credible witnesses. This is only for states that allow credible witnesses which is about 30 states more or less and you can look them up online.

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When are you required by law to give Oaths?
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September 17, 2019

How a video game reminded me what a noble profession we have

Filed under: Other Guest Bloggers — admin @ 9:57 pm

So, you’re probably wondering why I’m even talking about a video game. After all, working as a notary is serious business and you wouldn’t be wrong in saying that it is a profession where errors are seriously frowned upon. Our experience in the profession varies, but the one thing that’s constant among all notaries is that there are professional standards that need to be met.

Some tasks are straightforward and simple, while others are more complex. Yet, no matter how simple the task may be, the smallest error can put others at risk. The game I’m referring to, called Papers, Please, offers is a similar — albeit virtual — experience.

First Off, What Exactly Is Papers, Please?

A recently released point and click game game, Papers, Please places the player in the shoes of a border inspector of a country called Arstotska. The player’s task is to screen each person who wants to enter the country and to try to adhere to standards set by the government. There are many other aspects of the game, but this is the aspect that I want to put a heavy emphasis on. In the game, making an error gets you a citation, and in the later stages an error means letting dangerous people through the border, which puts lives at risk. You essentially handle sensitive data, check it for accuracy and truthfulness, and decide whether you’d allow the person into the country or not.

It’s quite similar to how we check statements and decide if the facts hold up. In fact, most, if not all court proceedings rely heavily on notarized documents, especially during personal injury cases, according to the lawyers at tariolaw.com.

Why Should We Care About This Game?

Well, that’s where the error is. You assume that this is about the game. It’s not. What really struck me was how the tasks got more and more complicated as the game progressed. You have to assess various pieces of information and decide whether to stamp a traveller’s passport, allowing them access through the border.

This puts an air of risk in the game, even when all the player does is to look through papers and counter-check facts presented by a traveller. And the way that the travelers interact with the player in an attempt to appeal to the player’s kinder nature forces you to make hard decisions.

How Is It Related To The Profession?

It reminded me a lot of how we, as public notaries, are the front line of defense against any attempts to commit fraud. In the same way that the inspector in Papers, Please is the first line of defense against people who would do the country harm, we are the first line of defense against people who want to put falsehoods onto paper or when they try to twist the truth in their favor.

And it’s rather funny that I was unexpectedly reminded of this duty by a video game that I happened to stumble across whilst browsing my YouTube feed in my free time!

I mean, whether you’ve had 30 years of experience in the profession or you’re a rookie who’s learning the ropes, it can be draining to do the same thing over and over if you forget your purpose. I’ll say it again, ours is a profession that can’t have any mistakes, whether they’re big mistakes or common mistakes — we are all about accuracy and precision. And sometimes it can be quite draining, but always remember that the seal that we stamp has power and authority. People are depending on us to verify facts and to educate them on what they’re getting into by signing a document.

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September 16, 2019

Travel fees vs. Notary fees in your journal

Filed under: Journals — admin @ 11:10 pm

For those of you who keep a Notary journal, you need to record the Notary fee as one of the fields. But, what if you get paid $65 for a signing with a travel fee and two signatures? How do you differentiate between the travel fee and the signature fees?

You can either arbitrarily decide how much is a travel fee and how much is a signature fee if the job is a flat fee. Or you can base the fees on the fees you quoted the client.

When you fill in your journal, the main thing is to put a Notary fee that does not exceed the fees allowed by your particular state, otherwise you could be accused of charging excessive fees which is illegal. If California allows $15 per notarized signature on an Acknowledgment or Jurat, then you cannot inscribe more than $15 per journal entry for each Notary act.

For those of you who use the “cram it in” style of journal entries, you cannot put a notary fee for five documents on the same line. It just doesn’t make sense. This is yet another potent reason why you should not use a style of journal entry that inputs more than one document per line. It is impossible to prove in court that the signer consented to all of the documents being notarized since he is not signing for a particular one. It is also not possible to know what the fees involved are either which means you are not doing proper bookkeeping.

As far as the travel fee, you could input the travel fee for a particular appointment in the additional notes section of the journal entry and indicate that is is a travel fee. The travel fee I would indicate once on the first journal entry for a particular appointment. Correct and prudent journal entry procedure requires separate entries for each person and document. So, once again, three people each signing four notarized documents would result in twelve journal entries with the travel fee indicated in the top entry.

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Travel fees if nothing gets signed
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September 14, 2019

The Role of Notaries After a Motor Vehicle Accident

Filed under: Other Guest Bloggers — admin @ 11:13 pm

If you have been injured in a motor vehicle accident, then searching for a car accident lawyer is your top priority. They will help you deal with your claim and ensure that you get the best possible settlement when it comes to damages.

However, your lawyer, and the law firm they are associated with, cannot do anything related to your case without a notary doing their job.

In today’s article, we will talk about the role and importance of notaries after a motor vehicle accident.

Notarized Documents
As mentioned above, your car accident lawyer cannot start working on your case if the documents related to it are not first handled by a notary. This is because the court that will be judging your case will not accept any documents that haven’t been properly notarized.

Law firms usually have an employee that holds a notary license, making them capable of quickly notarizing the documents that are needed on a case that of their lawyers is working on.

However, some firms work with either freelancers or third-party notary services as well.

Failure to Notarize Documents
Before filing a personal injury claim, you must make sure that any of the documents that may be needed in court are properly notarized. If you fail to notarize some of those documents, you will lose both time and money.
Why?

Well, even if one single document is not notarized, you will have to file the entire case again. Moreover, depending on the state you live in and its jurisdiction, your case may end up being thrown out due to paperwork technicalities.
In short, it may take a very long time before you reach any settlement, simply because you or your law firm has failed to notarize a single document.

The Importance of Notaries and Notarized Documents
Given that you have just been injured in a motor vehicle accident, you won’t be keen on walking to a notary and getting your documents notarized. Therefore, you should always rely on a personal injury lawyer, as well as on a notary or two, to complete this process for you.

Moreover, keep in mind that you can get your documents notarized online as well, depending on the state you live in.

As you will have to deal with medical expenses and other bills caused by the accident, it is important that you do everything right and on time, to make sure that you don’t waste a single second, and that you will receive your compensation as quickly as possible.

Concluding Remarks
In short, notaries and notarized documents are vital for the filing of a motor vehicle accident claim. You, your lawyer, as well as the court, won’t be able to do anything with your case if you fail to present them with properly notarized documents.

Still, if you choose to work with a professional lawyer and their law firm, they will most likely deal with this aspect of your claim so that you can focus on treating your injuries.

While a notary is essential for a motor vehicle accident, it is better to focus on working with the right car accident lawyer!

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August 18, 2019

Here is why you should keep a journal…

Filed under: Carmen Towles — admin @ 11:40 pm

I was speaking with one of my notary colleagues and I don’t know how the topic of journals came up but it did. This notary lives and works in Florida and they are not required to keep a journal but he does. He says that he always has since day one. He says that it has saved him on more than one occasion.

He shared with me a couple of incidents that he felt have saved him from wasted time, lawsuits and lawyer fees. After a 5 year old notarization, he received a call from an attorney that wanted to know if he remembered notarizing for a Haitian woman whom he had met with. Typically he doesn’t remember them after a few years but he did remember her. The lawyer went on to tell him that the woman had since passed and the son was contesting the POA he had notarized, He said that his mother would not have signed such a document. It seems she had given one of the other sibling POA and this angered him. So, the notary found the journal entry, made a copy and sent to the attorney and that was the end of it. He never heard from him again.

On another occasion he actually received a subpoena and had to actually appear in court. It seems this was around the time of option arm loans and subprime. In any case, the signers of the loan were claiming fraud on the lenders part. Because no-one is required in Florida to keep a journal he was not asked for a journal entry. However, on the day of his court appearance he brought along his journal. Upon taking the stand to be questioned, he mentioned to the judge that not only did they appear before him and indeed sign the loan documents, he had journal entries along with thumbprints to prove it. The judge looked at the journal and in annoyance banged his gavel and said case dismissed. Pay your bills he directed to the borrower/signers.

Now think about this; what if in both these occasions he had not had a journal to prove that these people had met with him. Both these cases had the potential to drag on for weeks perhaps even months.

So moral of the story, PLEASE keep a journal for your own (and others) protection. For most states this is not a requirement. And, if your are precluded/prohibited form keeping one (Texas comes to mind) then by all means follow the rules/laws of your state. But for the rest of you that have no such restriction please keep a journal. It is so worth the extra effort. The benefits for out weigh the expense (buying journals) and the extra time required too fill them out. A journal could save your life…..

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http://blog.123notary.com/?p=19483

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August 17, 2019

The Signature Name Affidavit: what is it and its purpose…

I am posed with questions concerning this document quite often. So let me tell what it is and what it isn’t. For those of you that are unfamiliar; this document is one of the documents found in 95% of all of loan packages.

The signature name affidavit represent names that have appeared on an individuals credit report(s). When a person applies for a loan, the lender runs a persons credit using all 3 of the credit bureaus (Experian, TransUnion and Equifax). These reports will usually include all of the names an individual has used in their lifetime; examples would be; marriages, maiden and name given at birth. The signers are required by the lender to sign the form and the form typically needs to be notarized.

At other times there will be clerical errors consisting of misspelled names and occasionally where the names are quite different. Sometimes in the case of the latter the signers will have an objection to signing the form and one can hardly blame them. So, if the signers have an objection to signing a name that is not their own, I have them strike it and initial. To date that has been acceptable and I haven’t had a document returned because of this action. (I suggest however, that you always bring this to the attention the company (or person) that hired you while-at the signing table if it is an issue. Never take matters into your own hands. ALWAYS ask).

There will be other times when the ID doesn’t match the documents exactly; say for example, a middle name is missing or the maiden was used previously and now they are married but they have no ID with these variations, you may be asked to add this name variation to the signature name affidavit in lieu of having ID. This is a big NO.NO. We must have current government issued picture ID. (or credible witnesses if they are allowed in your state). You CANNOT add names to the signature name affidavit that you DON’T have ID for. This is fraud and you will be on BIG trouble, if it ever comes up in an investigation or court case. I hear notary excuses; “But Carmen, they swore to me that that was their name.” Not good enough. Just imagine how this would appear to law enforcement or a judge. You must protect yourself and the signer. If you unfortunately find yourself in this situation always ask the signers if they have other acceptable ID that has all their names on it or use credible witness if allowed.

Now, I have actually added names to the signature name affidavit that I had ID for, but that is another blog story. 🙂

Until next time, be safe!

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What constitutes a signature?
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The Signature Name Affidavit
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=16298

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