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…..
You might also like:
Do you keep a journal to please the notary division, judges, or the FBI?
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=19483
Notary Public 101 – Journals
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=19511
Met a notary once who was summoned before the Supreme Court DC. If she had not kept a neat and precise Journal, she would have been in deep trouble. Always keep a neat, precise Journal.
Comment by Douglas Stout — September 20, 2019 @ 6:49 pm
I had someone come to my office questioning a document that I had notarized
I checked my journal on that date and I had not notarized this document. I looked at the seal. It had my first and last name but the middle initial was not mine and the signature and commission expiration date did not match either.Therefore they had the wrong notary.
I can not stress enough the importance of keeping a journal.
Comment by Donna Sartin — October 20, 2019 @ 8:12 pm