Hi,
How do I fill out my CA notary journal for credible witnesses? Where do the witnesses sign? Do I give them their own signature line in the journal just like the signer? Where does the witness information go?
I would greatly appreciate your help. Thank you
From the CA Notary Public Handbook, Page 8
“Note: The credible witnesses must sign the notary public’s journal and the notary public must
indicate in his or her journal the type of identifying documents, the identifying numbers of the
documents, and the dates of issuance or expiration of the documents presented by the witnesses
to establish their identities. (Government Code section 8206(a)(2)(E))”
So yes - individual lines for each credible witness and they sign just like the signer does.
The concept and premise of two verifiable witness swearing to a persons identity, in case of expired docs is pretty simple.
If a signer has absolutely NO id, at-least I ask for expired id, birth certification , ssn etc. Ask them to verify things like ssn and birth date and other things to verify.
Then I ask the witness " do you swear that the person you are witnessing is So & SO is Mr xxxx or Ms XXXX. if they affirm to a oath and swear to truthfulness and say so… then I log their identity and mark it as JURAT and they sign your journal.
IF there is a written document that bears to witness testimony , then i mark it as an AFFIDAVIT , on which they sign and i sign & notary stamp.
Now if they lied under oath and I have their ID and their signature on their log, then they committed perjury.
I as notary acted in good faith. Note: If fake identity was presented and my IQ did not detect it, then as a NOTARY , you are non liable , because I am not required to act as a ID expert to say which is real or fake. This is NOT a notary’s job at least in my state… So you are good there too… as long you have log. Additional safety is to have their finger prints on your log book and photo of your ID.
If someone is doing something wrong and has ulterior motives, this insistence of taking a picture on phone and their finger prints will scare them off and they wont sign.
At Worse !! I have lost in time and gas ( drive)
