Personal Appearance: The Best Protection For Notaries
By Bill Anderson on March 02, 2016 in Best Practices
Updated 11-19-19. The best way to protect yourself from being sued for negligence is to require every signer to appear in person before you for a notarization.
In fact, every state requires signers to personally appear as a way to thwart forgeries and frauds involving notarized documents. Requiring a signer to be present allows you to properly identify the signer and go through all the other proper steps of a notarization. It also may deter individuals bent on committing crimes from carrying out their plans.
Legal Consequences Of Notarizing Without Personal Appearance
Most lawsuits against Notaries happen because they notarized the signature of someone who wasn’t present. Here are actual examples:
A candidate was disqualified in a local election because the signature gatherers were not present before the Notary when their signatures were notarized on his nominating papers.
Thousands of borrowers lost their homes when employees of mortgage servicers notarized affidavits supporting scores of foreclosures without the signers present.
A senior citizen lost his life savings when a “caregiver” had his signature on a power of attorney naming the caregiver notarized without the signer present before the Notary.
In many instances, the Notaries faced their own legal consequences of failing to require the signer to personally appear.
The best way to protect yourself and minimize risk of Notary liability is to enforce the personal appearance requirement for every notarization. This also protects the public and the transaction.
Questions From Notaries About Remote Online Notarizations
Some Notaries have asked if they are allowed to perform remote online notarizations using online audiovisual communications devices such as webcams.
Currently 9 states — Virginia, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, North Dakota, South Dakota Tennessee and Texas — permit Notaries to perform notarizations using audiovisual communication technology. 13 other states have passed laws authorizing remote online notarization but have not yet fully implemented the process in their jurisdictions. All other states require the signer to appear in person before the Notary.