providing documents to deal with the administration of the estate of people who are abroad, or own property abroad
A notary offers legal assurance by verifying the authenticity of documents. They confirm the identities of signatories, ensuring that documents are signed voluntarily and without coercion.
Currently to qualify as a notary public in England and Wales it is necessary to have earned a law degree or qualified as a solicitor or barrister in the past five years, and then to take a two-year distance-learning course styled the Postgraduate Diploma in Notarial Practice.
tip As a first step please select the country where you are looking for a notary. Note that the profession of a notary does not exist everywhere and for the time being the UK is not covered.
On the other hand, a document not notarized will require that each statement therein be proven in a trial including the amount of money stated therein through receipts, and the capacity or authority of the parties to enter into such document or agreement through testifying in court.
The separate development of the common law in England, free from most of the influences of Roman law, meant that notaries were not introduced into England until later in the 13th and 14th centuries. At first, notaries in England were appointed by the Papal Legate. In 1279 the Archbishop of Canterbury was authorized by the Pope to appoint notaries.
After the Reformation, persons appointed to the office of public notary either in Great Britain or Ireland received the faculty by royal authority, and appointments under faculty from the Pope and the emperor ceased.
Not surprisingly, in those early days, many of the notaries were members of the clergy. In the course of time, members of the clergy ceased to take part in secular business and laymen, especially in towns and trading centers, began to assume the official character and functions of a modern common law notary.
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The parties must affix their signature to the document in front of the notary. The presence of the notary public is required by the law to ensure that the parties are validly agreeing on the document. The notary public ensures that the agreement reflects what the parties want and the notary public may likewise advise the parties as to the contents and legal effects of the document.
In any case, the notarization of a document should revolve around truth and faith, and should never be used to shield wrong-doings and to validate a false statement.
In practice the need for notaries in purely English legal matters is very small; for example they are not involved in normal property transactions. Since a great many solicitors also perform the function of commissioners for oaths and can witness routine declarations etc. (all are qualified to do so, but not all offer the service), most work performed by notaries relates to international matters in some way.
Notaries collecting information for the purposes of verification of the signature of the deponent might retain the details of documents which identify the deponent, and this information is subject to the Privacy Act 1988.
Often, in the case of lawyer notaries, the certificate to be provided Estate Planning will not require the person appearing to sign.