General Services
New Jersey Mobile Notary Service
wants you to know more about our functions
and
our legal
restrictions.
Notaries
are “ministerial” officials who are required to
follow a lengthy set of oath instructions and understand state Notary
Laws. The definition of a notary’s job
is: to identify document signers,
complete certificates and follow instructions. It
is the execution of these responsibilities, with the
multiplicity of ID’s,
Forms and procedures that require a Properly Trained and Professional
Notary.
The notary’s two basic job functions are to witness or verify the
signing of
documents. Notaries are also authorized to administer oaths when they
are
required by notarizing text, committing the signer, signatures and
certificates. A false statement made to
a Notary, under Oath, is Perjury; exactly the same as a false statement
made
under Oath in a Court of Law. Notarization is serious legal business.
Some
of
the usual and customary notarial functions include:
- Administering Oaths and
Affirmations.
- Taking Affidavits and
Depositions.
- Receiving and
certifying Acknowledgments or proof of such written instruments as
Deeds, Mortgages, and Powers of Attorney.
- Demanding acceptance or
payment of foreign inland Bills of Exchange, Promissory Notes and
Obligations in Writing, and protesting the same for nonpayment.
- Copy Certifications.
A notary is not responsible for verifying truth or
accuracy of the contents of a document. A
notary does not make documents Legal, Official or
Validated. A document with errors or
discrepancies prior
to notarization will contain the same errors if notarized.
In the process of performing their job
functions, notaries try to prevent fraud, and compel truthfulness.
Oaths are verbal pledges to
a Supreme Being with a legal purpose that a
person will attest faithfully and truthfully Oaths must be given in
person, and
may be administered any time, day or night. Notaries
may give any oath required by state law,
including oaths of
office to public officials. A notary
“administers” or “gives” an oath. The
person who “takes” an oath or “swears to it” is called a constituent.
An affirmation is an act in which a notary
certifies that a person made a voluntary vow in the presence of a
notary under
the penalty of perjury. There is no
reference
to a Supreme Being in an affirmation. It
is a solemn declaration made by a constituent who declines to take an
oath for
religious reasons or conscientious scruples.
In taking a
verification upon oath, or affirmation for an
affidavit, deposition or other sworn document, the notary must execute
a Jurat. The purpose of a Jurat is
to compel
truthfulness. The notary appeals to the
signer’s conscience and requires him/her to swear to the truthfulness
of the
document’s content under criminal penalties for perjury.
Sometimes a Jurat (Latin for oath) is
executed without reference to a document, as with the oath of office
given to a
public official.
An affidavit is a written statement signed by a person who
asserts it to be true and makes the assertion upon oath or affirmation. It is a declaration reduced to writing,
signed by the affiant (the person making an affidavit), and sworn to in
person before an officer. It is also
known as "verification upon oath or affirmation”.
Disclaimer: A Notary Public is not
an
Attorney at Law and it is illegal for a Notary to
give any form of Legal Advice.
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