If John has power of attorney for Sue, can he swear under Oath for Sue? No, he can’t. But, he can sign documents on Sue’s behalf.

To sum it up, he can swear at Sue, for not swear for Sue.

This is an issue doing loan signings involving Powers of Attorney. Most of these signings have Affidavits that need to be sworn to. So, the agent swears to them. And that is that.

There are various ways and reasons why a seal’s impression might not be perfect. Please note that county recorders are sometimes very picky about a seal being perfect with no missing corners and not too light or dark, or God forbid smudgy.

If you over-ink your stamp it could get smudgy easily. And if you are running low on ink, your stamp might be too dry. So, find that happy medium inking your seal.

There are several ways to remedy a smudgy or bad seal impression.

1. Get a fresh certificate form and start over.
This is the cleanest. But, if your client wants the original document notarized on original paperwork and no stapled certificates, you can always… (see next option)

2. Re-affix your seal below or near the original seal. Make sure the seals do not overlap. I mentioned this to the seals basking at La Jolla Beach in San Diego — they were lounging on top of each other. I told them that is against Notary law. They said, “We’re not that kind of seals — ar ar ar…”

3. DO NOT try to fix or repair the original seal impression. It will look tampered with and that would constitute tampering. It would look very suspicious and odd.

4. Do a practice exercise on a spare piece of paper and shred it once you are done. That way you can make sure your seal is not too runny, and that your wrist has the right technique.

5. Print out a new document, shred the original, resign and re-stamp. That is yet another option.

So, now you know how to solve one of the earliest problems known to mankind. If you know which came first — the chicken or the egg, and how to fix a botched stamp, then grasshopper, you are ready to go out into the world.

In my career I saw a bunch of odd signatures. Most of what I saw was normal though. Here are the types of signatures I saw.

1. Regular looking signatures
Some had a middle initial or name(s), some did not.

2. Odd scribbles

3. Scribbles that were as tall as they were wide — reminds me of Arabic calligraphy. My comment was, “What IS this?”

4. Hieroglyphics
I once went to an Egyptian restaurant. The menu was in English, but I’ll give you a hint as to what language the inflated bill was written in.

5. Chinese characters
The signature on the ID matched the ID although his English name did not match the characters. I think I am at an advantage as I can recognize Chinese characters, but not all of them. Anyway, the signer was one hell of a character himself speaking of characters.

6. The Israeli Job
Remember that action movie, “The Italian Job.” I did an Israeli job. This guy was in the film business and his signature was a horizontal line that turned into a check mark and then a weird dot above the end of it. How bizarre. He insisted that he signed million dollar deals with that signature. If I knew any Hebrew I would say, “Ma-Zei?” (what is this?)

7. The childish signature
Some people write out their signature in very clear letters like children do. I have seen old folks do this too. Very bizarre and illiterate looking. But, then the new generation doesn’t know cursive anymore so I’ve heard.

8. The X
Incapacitated people and illiterates sometimes sign with an X. They need subscribing witnesses to help with that procedure and you better study up before you try it.

9. A thumbprint
I have never heard of this. But, I heard that a Notary in Florida accepted a thumbprint as a signature during a signature by mark signing. Not sure if that is legal there, but I heard they did it.

10. The artwork signature
Other signatures look like some sort of artwork you would see in embroidery. This is unusual, but if it happens it will most likely be a woman’s signature.

11. The bubbly dots on the i’s.
Teenage girls and young women sometimes do this. This is how I caught someone who forged my signature. It only happened once, but the bubbly i’s gave it away. This woman didn’t cross her i’s and dot her t’s, she bubbled her i’s and forged her t’s.

12. The large initials
I am not sure how legal that is, but if it matches the ID, I guess that works

13. The 1800’s wax seal
In the old days they would use a personal stamp and candle wax to make their seal. I’m not sure if they would sign it as well. Wax can fall off a lot easier than a signature. Those were the days.

14. The Arabic signature
He signed the wrong direction, but in their culture, right to left is the right direction.

Here are a few dumb mistakes Notaries make that courses might not address.

1. Missing signatures, dates or initials.

2. Sending the package back to the wrong Mortgage company.

3. Forgetting to send the package and finding it in your trunk three days after the fact only to find out that the borrower lost their lock as a result.

4. Forgetting to confirm the appointment and finding nobody home when you get to the destination.

5. Not making sure all signing parties are there only to find out that the wife is at work an hour away.

6. Not printing out the whole package.

7. Not having the correct printing or downloading software downloaded.

8. Telling the signer you will be there in 10 minutes and then showing up two hours later with some lame excuse

9. Answering all questions with a snow job trying to cover up the fact that you are new and know almost nothing. This just makes you look annoying in addition to being new. At least you could be a straight forward new person with dignity.

10. Not reading the directions sheet (if there is one) at the top of the package. You could get fired for that.

Common mistakes the borrowers make include letting their cat or dog scratch you or bite you. when they put their dog on the other side of a closed door, have you ever noticed that door always seems to open several minutes later only to create a scene? Some borrowers also read forever and didn’t go over the critical facts with their lenders. Other borrowers don’t have a table to sign on — and that is a serious issue.

I have a trick question in one of my email quizzes. In the question, the affiant requests an Oath for a document about whether he likes Starbucks or not. It is a sort of a nonsense Oath, but goes over some critical knowledge about Oaths as silly as it sounds.

The answers have to do with the first words the Notary should say when administering the Oath. Some of the answers include:

1. You should ask if the signer wants an Oath or Affirmation
2. Do you swear or affirm that…

These particular answers (and there are about seven total answers to this question to see who really knows their stuff and who is guessing or fudging.) reveal a lot. The signer already request an Oath, so you have already fulfilled your obligation to let the signer choose what type of notarization they want. So you don’t have to ask again what type of Notary act they want. If you answered 1 or 2, you are being redundant and those answers are therefore not good answers. You should then say,

“Do you solemnly swear that you love Starbucks?”

They should raise their right hand and say, “yes” or “I do.”

The purpose of this question is to see who thinks straight and who does not. People who have illogical thinking are not the best people to hire. On the other hand, I recently learned that people who ignore emails are even riskier to hire because they are negligent by definition!

If you are doing a notarization by video (sounds dubious at best) and the person presents a fake ID. How difficult would it be to determine if this is fake?

My answer is that I am not a RON, but that there are about eight types of portals or software packages that accompany RON notarizations and they can be used to identify a signer or check ID. Each is different and I have no IDea if they are good at spotting fake ID. If they can connect with the DMV in the signer’s area, then that would definitely help to verify the ID.

But, maybe the RONs and RONda’s out there can help give their input for this question as you know more than I do.

PS… If you are a female RON, wouldn’t that make you a RONda?

How would this happen? If you have two signers being notarized on one document, but they are in different counties, but the same notary is notarizing both of them on the same day, then you might have two counties in one venue.

On the other hand, it might be more kosher to use two Acknowledgment forms, one per person, and one per county. It might look odd if the document gets recorded at the county recorder’s office if there are two counties. It might raise eyebrows.

In my experience, I have only indicated two counties on one certificate once in my career. I had to ask someone at a signing company how to do it. My notary course never said that you could do that but also never said that I could not. Hmm. One of those things.

There are a bunch of platforms and software people use for RON or IPEN. If you could let us all know what you like best, why, and your commentary. Perhaps you might compare and contrast one service to the other. I have nothing to say about any of this because I am very poor technically and have no experience with any of these. Thanks.