re: Notary test

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Why is it so hard to pass?

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Looking around at the notaries, I find that hard to believe.

Looking through property records I've found deeds the notary forgot to sign, documents where the witness and notary signatures were clearly done by the same person, etc.

We had one lady who was basically practicing law without a license for a while.

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A notary authenticates signatures on documents. That’s it.

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They do more than that. Fact.


They can draft power of attorneys, they can write wills and draw up contracts. Is this not what an attorney can do? Outside a court of law and give legal advice, a notary can do the same thing a lawyer can.

Going to earn that big frick you money I see!

Remote Online Notary is going to change this profession up in the near future and there isn’t anyway to stop it from happening in Louisiana.

In South Carolina you just fill out a form and send it in. I did mine 5 years ago and if I remember correctly I just filled out the paperwork and they sent me the stamp. When people ask my to notarize something I always feel like it is a complete waste because I just sign it and move on.

There is an American attorney telling them what is law in the US.

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Tracy Smith Tracy Smith, Librarian and Notary Public commissioned in the State of New Jersey Answered Aug 11, 2018 · Author has 206 answers and 285.5k answer views A very big difference in the United States. Notaries are NOT qualified to give legal advice. This extends all the way any interpretation of the document being notarized, and they cannot advise which notarial act or certificate a document requires. A notary is directed in what to do. The only exceptions to this are when the notary is an attorney, or a paralegal knowledgeable about the document in question (think real estate as an example). Lawyers can notarize documents, but notaries do NOT give legal advice. The duties of a notary public can be described as "ministerial" whereas lawyers, in their line of work, provide legal advice (among other things). Now in other countries, it may differ. Notaries may be able to higher level tasks in other countries. It's actual poor practice in the United States to advertise Notary Public services in Spanish, specifically if the intent is to give Spanish speaking individuals the impression that Notary Publics can help with preparing legal documents to help with immigration. This may be true in Mexico, but not here, and it's potentially misleading. Also consider in most states there is very little training required to become a notary public. One exception is California. However, that training is not training to provide legal services; it's focused on properly training notaries.

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Remote Online Notary is going to change this profession up in the near future and there isn’t anyway to stop it from happening in Louisiana.

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They’re trying to stop it here in LA also wanting to stop banking institutions the right to notarize their docs.

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MrLSU

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Remote Online Notary is going to change this profession up in the near future and there isn’t anyway to stop it from happening in Louisiana.

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If a consumer or resident in need of notarial services is smart, the state of North Carolina and Notarize.com already had disrupting power.

However, the big issue for them is capacity, coercion and witnesses. In Louisiana, an Authentic Act requires witnesses to be present. There's case law out there that calls into question whether someone was just, "in the doorway," when a document was signed and notarized, or whether they were actually in the room to witness it.

It's somewhat complicated and those issues are big ones to figure that out.

To those that scoff at the Notarial Exam...Go take it. The Civil Law System that Louisiana uses is similar to the rest of the world outside of England & Austrailia (and the US as a result), which is common law-based. The other 49 states use Common and not civil law.

In a Civil-Law system, the Notary Public has had expansive powers and operated in the absence of attorneys or in lieu of when paperwork, bills of sale, title conveyances and other official documentation was needed for recording purposes. That tradition has survived to the present day in Louisiana as a result of our continued use of the Civil Law System.

As a result, unlike the rest of the Nation, Louisiana Notary Publics can actually draft documents like wills, trusts, mortgages, and other types of contracts and agreements between different combinations of people, businesses, organizations and entities. They can even open and close small (notarial) successions underneath $150K in Louisiana provided there is no out of state property.

As a result of the power and authority they have-and the aformentioned crooked if not outright broken process in commissioning notary public's locally-the testing process was standardized in Louisiana statewide and authority for testing and commissions was brought underneath the Secretary of State's Office. They are also charged with enforcement of malfeasance/misfeasance in a muddled relationship with local District Attorney's. That muddling and the SOS's lack of real enforcement dollars and focus means that-in concert with a lack of continuing education requirements and a lifelong commission-poor work happens more often than most of us would like.

(In our defense, the same could be said of attorney's, mechanics, lawn guys, etc)

As for Remote Online Notarization, I honestly feel as if it will not impact business for most notaries all that tangibly. I created this business based off of seeing what we paid notaries when I was in the mortgage business. When I pivoted out of the industry, I knew I could use this to provide some beer money, pay for a vacation or at least a long weekend every now again, etc. Which it has done beautifully. It also pays me a small monthly retainer amount for my employer to get the use of my services while I'm doing my normal job (which has nothing to do with being a notary).

The title companies in Louisiana (who are fueled by real-estate attorneys) want no part of remote online notarizations as this would erode their business as title companies and title producers. The fees they could charge would dry up quickly. So notaries have an unlikely partner in title companies we sometimes compete with, along with-tangentially-the Bar Association.

In that respect, the Authentic Act being required for a mortgage will mean that online/remote notarizations won't take hold here thanks to the civil law system that attorneys and notaries draw their power through being in place. That Authentic Act requirement in Louisiana will be a saving grace. If that ever goes by the wayside, katie bar the door.

As for other work, Louisiana is a rural state and rural areas are not served well with broadband, wireless connectivity, etc. Eventually, technology will reach to every corner of the globe including Louisiana. But for now, tech won't encroach on what we do or how we do it.

There will still be a huge market for someone like me to drive down to the Wal-Mart parking lot on a Saturday afternoon and work up a bill of sale and notarize it and the back of a title for a car title transfer. I'll still get calls in the evenings for someone to sign documents at Parish Prison admitting guilt or innocence the day before a hearing in Court.

Anyway, I ran across this thread by accident while trying to do some work tonight. Sorry for the random stream of consciousness...