I work in a litigation department where we have to notarize a large amount of affidavits per employee on a regular basis. In CA the record in our journal is quite lengthly and time consuming for us to complete the line for every affidavit (up in the hundreds per day). Does anyone have any tips on how to stream line the record? For instance we were thinking of taking identification and signature and date per session and then just entering the name and account number associated with the affidavit that was notarized in that session. Does anyone have any experience notarizing for a large company and having to process large amounts of certificates in Ca?
Well, there really is no way around it... and if you're dealing with litigation issues, you'd think you want to absolutely SURE the your notary records are properly maintained. Some notaries have different interpretations of what the law means in our handbooks, but I (as well as many others here) will tell you... you need to complete the the entire line entry for each and every signature notarized. There are no shortcuts.
There was an Education Vendor's meeting that took place on 10/23/2009. This comes right from the Secretary of State. All CA Notary education vendors got this... the link I'm posting here is to another company that has the file posted and available.
https://www.notaryrotary.com/library/10-23-09-vendors-meeting-minutes-final.pdf
The NNA also had this same information, as a result of that meeting, and in February 2010, they published an article referencing it:
https://www.nationalnotary.org/bulletin/bulletin_articles/for_california_notaries_a_signature_on_every_line.htm l"> https://www.nationalnotary.org/bulletin/bulletin_articles/for_california_notaries_a_signature_on_every_line.html
(I'm not a huge fan of the NNA personally, but I'm posting this just as a matter of reference.)
What you want to read is the top of page 4 of the PDF linked above. It's part of a long section of Q&A clarifications from teachers:
"Q, When multiple notarial acts are performed, is it acceptable for a diagonal line to be drawn from the first document to the last document in the notary public journal with a single signature covering all transactions? In addition, can ditto (“) marks be used in the journal?
A. Government Code section 8206 requires that the notary public's journal include all the information for "each official act." Therefore, each act would include the date, time, type of each official act, character of the instrument, signature, type of identification, fee, and thumbprint (if applicable) on a separate line for each act."
That's pretty clear to me, and it *is* in the handbook, too. See page 9 and 27. It's pretty clear that this information needs to be recorded for "each official act" -- which means that if you've got 5 official acts, you've got 5 entries that include the date, time, type of act, signature, etc. as written above.
The reasoning is kind of obvious, if you think about it. If you're asked to provide a line item for a POA that was done with multiple other documents, you can't just provide a copy of the line items for everything unless each of those specific documents were requested, too. Let's say an auditor from the SOS's office calls and asks for just that one line. If you used dittos or a diagonal, you won't have all of the information recorded on that single line. And, if you put multiple acts in a single entry, for instance, you haven't recorded a signature for each official act.
(To Be Continued...)
(Continued....)
Now, the downside to what I said above is, of course, is that this document (the meeting notes) wasn't published to all the notaries, not on the SOS's website that I can find, nor is it expressly clarified in the handbook beyond the code itself (which I, personally, think is self explanatory.) It's just a memo of meeting minutes for those who teach CA notaries.
However, in the 2012 sample workbook, which is an approved educational workbook, published by the Secretary of State and covers everything on the exam... this *is* specifically stated and is freely available for download from the SOS's website:
https://www.sos.ca.gov/business/notary/forms/notary-education-sample-workbook-2012.pd f"> https://www.sos.ca.gov/business/notary/forms/notary-education-sample-workbook-2012.pdf
And is found on this page:
https://www.sos.ca.gov/business/notary/become-a-vendor.ht m"> https://www.sos.ca.gov/business/notary/become-a-vendor.htm
See pages 24-26, specifically it says:
"A separate line must be used for each document. For example, if a notary public completes an acknowledgment certificate on a deed of trust and an acknowledgment certificate on a promissory note, the notary public must record on separate lines in the journal that a “deed of trust” and “promissory note” were the character of the instruments with notarized signatures, completing each line of the journal, in full. The notary public cannot simply state that “loan docs” or “closing documents” were acknowledged. (California Government Code section 8206(a)(2)(B).)"
Fantastic! Thank you for your quick reply. I must've gotten that tip by word of mouth but now after checking with the SOS and here on the forum I can properly inform my company that we just have to do it longhand and that we're gonna need way more notaries to divvy this up! Greatly appreciated and good luck in your business!
The other thing to remember is that if you're doing affidavits (sworn statements) that the affiant must be there, in front of the notary for each and every act. The affiant has to sign the statement in front of the notary, who issues the oath.
No getting around that, either -- state law.
