Notary Reminders

A Notary must never notarize a signature that was not signed or acknowledged in the Notary's presence! This is the most important rule to protect a Notary from legal liability.
A Notary is to serve any person who makes a lawful and reasonable request for notarization.
A Notary is an impartial witness to a transaction.
A notarization does not prove the truthfulness of the contents of a document or validate a document and render it legal.
If a Notary has any doubt about the signer's identity, it is best not to notarize that signature.
A notarization provides verification of a document signer's willingness to sign, his competence to sign, and that the signer is, indeed, the person identified by the signature.
A signature affixed to a document by a rubber stamp cannot be notarized. Conversely, a notary must perform a notarization by signing his manual signature and not with the use of a rubber stamp of his signature.
Notaries may NOT make a photocopy of a birth certificate or a death certificate, marriage certificate, nor a publicly recordable document. Birth and death certificates are official state records. Certified copies may be obtained only from the State Registrar of Vital Records at Vital Records & Health Statistics in Santa Fe, New Mexico by calling 505-827-2338 or at the Health Department in Albuquerque, New Mexico by calling 505-841-4185, or by visiting their website(www.health.state.nm.us ).
An employer shall not establish fees for notarial services that are in excess of those specified on page 10 of the New Mexico Notary Public Handbook, nor on the attributes of the principal as delineated.
Notary public's shall neither certify nor authenticate a photograph.

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