Austin Mobile Notary wants you to know
more about our functions and our legal restrictions.
Notaries are “ministerial” officials who are required to follow a
lengthy set of oath instructions and understand state Notary
Laws. The definition of a notary’s job is: to identify
document signers, complete certificates and follow instructions.
It is the execution of these responsibilities, with the multiplicity of
ID’s, Forms and procedures that require a Properly Trained and
Professional Notary. The notary’s two basic job functions are to
witness or verify the signing of documents. Notaries are also
authorized to administer oaths when they are required by notarizing
text, committing the signer, signatures and certificates. A false
statement made to a Notary, under Oath, is Perjury; exactly the same as
a false statement made under Oath in a Court of Law. Notarization is
serious legal business.
Some of the usual and customary notarial functions include:
* Administering Oaths and Affirmations.
* Taking Affidavits and Depositions.
* Receiving and certifying Acknowledgments or proof
of such written instruments as Deeds, Mortgages, and Powers of Attorney.
* Demanding acceptance or payment of foreign inland
Bills of Exchange, Promissory Notes and Obligations in Writing, and
protesting the same for nonpayment.
* Copy Certifications.
A notary is not responsible for verifying truth or accuracy of the
contents of a document. A notary does not make documents Legal,
Official or Validated. A document with errors or discrepancies
prior to notarization will contain the same errors if notarized.
In the process of performing their job functions, notaries try to
prevent fraud, and compel truthfulness.
Oaths are verbal pledges to a Supreme Being with a legal purpose that a
person will attest faithfully and truthfully Oaths must be given in
person, and may be administered any time, day or night. Notaries
may give any oath required by state law, including oaths of office to
public officials. A notary “administers” or “gives” an
oath. The person who “takes” an oath or “swears to it” is called
a constituent.
An affirmation is an act in which a notary certifies that a person made
a voluntary vow in the presence of a notary under the penalty of
perjury. There is no reference to a Supreme Being in an
affirmation. It is a solemn declaration made by a constituent who
declines to take an oath for religious reasons or conscientious
scruples.
In taking a verification upon oath, or affirmation for an affidavit,
deposition or other sworn document, the notary must execute a
Jurat. The purpose of a Jurat is to compel truthfulness.
The notary appeals to the signer’s conscience and requires him/her to
swear to the truthfulness of the document’s content under criminal
penalties for perjury. Sometimes a Jurat (Latin for oath) is
executed without reference to a document, as with the oath of office
given to a public official.
An affidavit is a written statement signed by a person who asserts it
to be true and makes the assertion upon oath or affirmation. It
is a declaration reduced to writing, signed by the affiant (the person
making an affidavit), and sworn to in person before an officer.
It is also known as "verification upon oath or affirmation”.
Disclaimer: A Notary Public is not an Attorney at Law and it is illegal
for a Notary to give any form of Legal Advice.
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