NOTARY BODIES OF GREAT BRITAIN AND THE USA

A notary, in almost all common law jurisdictions, is a qualified, experienced practitioner trained in the drafting and execution of legal documents. The functions of notaries include the preparation of certain types of documents (including international contracts, deeds, wills and powers of attorney) and certification of their due execution, administering of oaths, witnessing affidavits and statutory declarations, certification of copy documents, noting and protesting of bills of exchange and the preparation of ships' protests.

Documents certified by notaries with the notary's seal or stamp and recorded by the notary in a register (also called a "protocol") are maintained and permanently kept by him or her. These are known as "notarial acts".

A notary is a qualified lawyer – a member of the third and oldest branch of the legal profession in the United Kingdom. The rules which affect notaries are very similar to the rules which affect solicitors. They must be fully insured and maintain fidelity cover for the protection of their clients and the public. They must keep clients’ money separately from their own and comply with severe practice rules and rules relating to conduct and discipline.

English notaries acquire the same powers as solicitors and other law practitioners with the exception of the right to represent others before the courts.

There are several classes of notaries in England and Wales: 1) the Scrivener notaries who get their name from the Scriveners’ Company, 2) the ecclesiastical notaries whose functions are limited to the affairs of the Church of England and 3) qualified persons who are not trained as solicitors or barristers but have passed special examinations.

In the United States a notary public is a person appointed by a state government (often by the governor or the secretary of the state, or in some cases the state legislature) to serve the public as an impartial witness.

A notary in the United States has powers that are far more limited than the role of a civil law notary in the rest of the world or in most other common law countries.

The US notary may not offer legal advice or prepare documents (with the exception of Louisiana) and cannot recommend how a person should sign a document or even what type of notarization is necessary. In many cases, a notary cannot authenticate a copy of a document. The most common notarial acts in the United States are the taking of acknowledgements and oaths.

The Lousiana notary is a civil law notary with broad powers that can perform many civil law notarial acts except represent action of another person before a court of law for a fee. Notaries are not allowed to give “legal” advice, but they are allowed to give “notarial” advice – i.e., explain or recommend what documents are needed or required to perform a certain act – and do all things necessary to the performance of their civil law notarial duties.

II. DEVELOPMENT