Blogocentric Formulations

Notary Classes

         Spent all day taking state-mandated notary classes today. Pretty basic stuff; what you can notarize, what you can't, different types of notarizations, penalties for mistakes, etc. This is a notary's job, in a nutshell, which was drilled into us for the entire six hours of instruction: notaries certify that a specific person signed a document of their own free will. There's all kinds of rules governing how to prove that, but the bottom line is that one way or another, you have to have someone physically in the room to provide identification (either the signer themselves, or a proxy with all kinds of other requirements).

         At the end of the class, the instructor shared with us some real, actual support calls the National Notary Association received for their help line. Among them:

         "Do I need to get a thumbprint and signature in my journal for someone I'm notarizing by mail?" (Answer: You don't notarize by mail since no one's physically in the room to prove their identity to you.)

         "How do I notarize a document for someone that's deceased?" (Answer: I don't really need to point out what's wrong with this one, right?)

         My head hurt after some of the questions people asked. And of course there was that one person in class - the person who always seems to pop up in every class - that just had to ask every conceivable question and make the entire class about her.

         "I know you said we'll never have to ever do a protest and that information won't be on the test, but what if we do? How do we do one?"

         "Can I charge a travel fee if people come to me for notarization at my office? No? Well what if it's after hours? No? Well what if it's after hours and at my office?"

         "We can't notarize something that we have a vested interest in. But what about my husband and my mortgage documents? How about a car loan? How about my cousin's best friend's will where he leaves me his stamp collection?"

         "We have thirty days to file our bond with the county clerk. What happens if I wait thirty one days?"

         "My best girlfriend's sister's husband was a notary years ago, and he said that we could do blah blah blah. Oh, we can't do that now? Why not? When did the law change? Why did they change the law? Are you sure about that? What happens if I do it the old way anyway?"

         *facepalm* Why is there always one of you in every class I take?