Backdating from A to Z for Notaries
Backdating is the act of putting a fraudulent date on a notarial certificate such as an Acknowledgment Certificate or Jurat Certificate, etc. Backdating is illegal and you can lose your commission, and perhaps face fines or even jail time if your crime is serious enough.
It is common for Lenders, or people who work in Title offices to have to close a loan by a particular date, or they will lose their lock and lose the interest rate that was agreed upon. If the loan MUST be signed by the 5th, but there was a delay in getting the paperwork ready, or the notary couldn’t come until the 6th, then the notary might be asked to backdate! Gulp! You will feel pressured to do it to keep the client happy. You will/might lose your pay, and the client if you don’t do what they want — but, if you comply, you could get into legal trouble which could ruin your career or life, and perhaps your afterlife as well. So, what are your priorities? Do you want to oben the law and lose a client, or risk it all for a bunch of nitwits who don’t have their act together?
If a loan is signed on the 6th, and the journal entries for the signatures on notarized documents are on the 6th, then the date that goes in the journal and the 6th, and the date that goes on the notary certificate wording is also the 6th. If the signing is close to midnight of the 6th, then you might be able to legally date it the 7th if part of the notary procedures went past midnight.
Please keep in mind that the document date might be the date of the signing or earlier. The document date can be whatever the document drafter chooses, and it serves little purpose other than to identify the document and distinguish it from other similar documents.
You might also like:
Notarization Dates, Document Dates & Signature Dates!
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=2421
Seal Forgery — it happened to me!
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=724
She lost a great account because she didn’t want to backdate
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=22229
What is a document date?
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=21431
