Notary Public Services Law & Lawyers

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News, updates and further information - Notary Public Law & Lawyers

Notaries are appointed by a government authority, such as a court or lieutenant governor, or by a regulating body often known as a Society or Faculty of Notaries Public. For lawyer notaries, an appointment is usually for life, while lay notaries are usually commissioned for a briefer term, with the possibility of renewal.

In most common law countries, appointments and their number for a given notarial district are highly regulated. However, since the majority of American notaries are lay persons who provide officially required services, commission numbers are not regulated, which is part of the reason why there are far more notaries in the United States than in other countries (4.5 million[2] vs. approx. 740 in England and Wales and Approx. 1,250 in Australia and New Zealand). Furthermore, all U.S. and some Canadian notarial functions are applied to domestic affairs and documents, where fully systematized attestations of signatures and acknowledgment of deeds are a universal requirement for document authentication. By contrast, outside North American common law jurisdictions, notarial practice is restricted to international legal matters or where a foreign jurisdiction is involved,[3] and almost all notaries are also qualified lawyers.

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For the purposes of authentication, most countries require commercial or personal documents which originate from or are signed in another country to be notarized before they can be used or officially recorded or before they can have any legal effect. To these documents a notary affixes a notarial certificate which attests to the execution of the document, usually by the person who appears before the notary, known as an appearer or constituent (U.S.). In places where lawyer notaries are the norm, a notary may also draft legal instruments known as notarial acts or deeds which may have probative value and executory force, as they do in the civil law jurisdictions. Originals or duplicate originals are then filed and stored in the notary's archives, or protocol. Acts of lawyer notaries in general do not have this executory force.

Notaries are generally required to undergo special training in the performance of their duties. Some must also first serve as an apprentice before being commissioned or licensed to practice their profession. In many countries, even licensed lawyers, e.g., barristers or solicitors, must follow a prescribed specialized course of study and be mentored for two years before being allowed to practice as a notary (e.g., British Columbia, England). However, notaries public in the U.S., of which the vast majority are lay people, require only a brief training seminar and are expressly forbidden to engage in any activities that could be construed as the practice of law unless they are also qualified attorneys. Yet, despite these apparent differences, notarial practice is universally considered to be distinct and separate from that of attorney (solicitor/barrister). In England and Wales,there is a course of study for notaries which is conducted under the auspices of the University of Cambridge and the Society of Notaries of England and Wales. In the State of Victoria, Australia, applicants for appointment must first complete a Graduate Diploma of Notarial Practice which is administered by the Sir Zelman Cowen Centre in Victoria University, Melbourne.

In bi-juridical jurisdictions, such as South Africa or Louisiana, the office of notary public is a legal profession with educational requirements similar to those for attorneys. Many even have institutes of higher learning that offer degrees in notarial law. Therefore, despite their name, "notaries public" in these jurisdictions are in effect civil law notaries.

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Notary Public Services Law & Lawyers Updates

Embassies and Consulates

Documents notarised by an Australian Notary Public for use overseas may be required to be "legalised" or "authenticated", before accepted by foreign governments or businesses.

Foreign governments or businesses usually require Australian notarised documents, as well as other Australian public documents, to be either "apostilled" by the Australian government, or "legalised" by their Embassies or Consulates in Australia.

The Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade (DFAT) issues Apostille Certificates or Authentication Certificates, authenticating the seals and signatures of Australian Public Notaries.

Those who require documents to be notarised should first make enquiries with the appropriate Embassy or Consulate of the country where their document is to operate, to ensure that their document does not need to be apostilled, authenticated or legalised.

Apostilles

DFAT either affixes or attaches Apostille Certificates or stamps onto notarised documents originating in Australia for use in most foreign countries.

It does so because since 1995, it has been a signatory to "The Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirements of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents".

Not all countries are signatories to this Convention and those countries that are not still insist that notarised documents be "legalised".

Italy, Greece, The Netherlands, Russia and UK are among signatories to the Hague Convention; UAE, China, Vietnam and most Middle Eastern countries are countries that have refrained from ratifying the Convention.

An Apostille Certificate, signed by an officer of DFAT, confirms that the notarised document has been signed by the named person acting in his or her capacity of a Notary, and bears the seal of such Notary Public.

Fees are payable to DFAT for Apostille and Authentication Certificates.

It is not the responsibility of a Notary Public to advise on the official requirements or processes of the Australian Government or the foreign country where the notarised document is destined for use. You should make your own investigations.

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