James Boroznoff
Aug 8, 2017 · 1 min read

It seems that people forget what a Notary does. People think that notarization is a ceremonial thing, or at the very least, a formality. Nothing is further from the truth. A Notary is authorized by the government of their state to act as an impartial witness that attests that a signer of a document is in fact that person.

But because people do not understand that, and think it’s just an annoying ceremonial formality, they feel inconvenienced to take the effort to go out and find a Notary, and will accept anything that appears to be a “notarization”.

Unfortunately, the joke is on them because no state laws allow for this practice. Only a Notary or other official authorized to act in place of a Notary (i.e. a Lawyer, a Judge, etc.) can notarize a document, and it must happen directly in the Notary’s presence, or in some select states, webcam, or e-notarizations suffice. There may be some private individuals that may accept this “online automatic notary” trash, but those individuals have the right to know that should the document ever find its way into court, it will never be accepted as a legitimate notarization. They may as well draw a circle on the document and say it’s “notarized” if they’re going to do that, at least that’s free.

    James Boroznoff

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