What is a Notary Public?

A notary public is a public officer with legal powers to certify legal documents. As a business owner, you should look to protect your assets and commercial contracts by using notary services to validate signatures on your commercial documents and ensure they are legally binding. This article will explain how a notary public can help ensure your business’ commercial contracts are enforceable.

What is a Notary Public?

Notary publics validate and authenticate the legality of any deed or legal documents businesses use as part of a business transaction. This process is known as ‘notarisation’.

Additionally, the process of notarisation can include:

• certifying the signing of a document in the notary’s presence;
• verifying an action or fact, that occurs in the notary’s presence (e.g. a bank transfer or the delivery of a deed); or 
• verifying an action that the notary may not have seen but knows has happened.

If you cannot assert that the signatures on a deed are from the correct party, you may struggle to enforce the obligations the deed conveys. You can also use public notaries to certify copy documents if only one original copy is available. Thus, you can then send out those true copies to other parties to the transaction. 

Why Are Notary Publics Important?

The risk of fraud and misrepresentation is becoming a greater threat to modern businesses. Fraudsters can use the latest technological advancements to forge signatures and produce fake documents. This can allow them to access anything from a set of bank details to commercially sensitive information. Therefore, employing a notary public’s service is one effective way to mitigate these risks. Furthermore, notary publics are particularly useful when dealing in international transactions. 

How to Notarise a Document

You can often sign commercial contracts at short notice. On the other hand, if you need to use the services of a notary, you will need to book an appointment with them at the time you are signing your documents. You can use the Notaries Society Website to search for qualified notaries near you. 

A standard notarisiation can take around 30 minutes. Additionally, you may want to check what your notary must do to notarise the document successfully. Indeed, the notarisiation process may vary depending on the document type and whether you need to notarise that document to become valid in a foreign country. Before you attend a notarisation appointment, it is also important to check whether the notary needs to see any forms of identification. Alternatively, they may require a power of attorney from you or any other signing party to authenticate the document’s signatures. For this reason, it is wise to always carry legal identification when attending a notary appointment at a notary’s office. 

The notary will then put together a written document outlining the identity of you and your business partners entering the commercial contract. That document will also outline the reasons for the use of the contract. Additionally, the notary will often include their certificate in that document. Typically, the notary will read the document aloud to each party who is due to sign the agreement. Then, the parties will sign the document with the notary present. 

Can You Notarise Electronic Documents?

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses are now signing documents electronically. However, this practice has become an issue for a lot of notaries. Many notary publics can be uncomfortable with certifying documents in electronic format. Nevertheless, notaries may be able to certify print-out electronic documents so long as they can satisfy that the document is an authentic copy. 

Key Takeaways

Notary publics are legal executives recognised internationally as being able to authenticate that documents have been made correctly and are legally binding. Businesses use notaries to verify: 

• that a document has been signed by the parties authorised to sign it;
• the legality of any document;
• that a specific action has taken place in their presence; and
• that an action has taken place that the notary knew of. 

Getting a solicitor’s advice is also advisable before liaising with a notary public. If you need help authenticating or notarising a document, our experienced contract lawyers can assist as part of our LegalVision membership. For a low monthly fee, you will have unlimited access to lawyers to answer your questions and draft and review your documents. Call us today on 0808 196 8584 or visit our membership page.

Frequently Asked Questions