Hello,
I am a librarian who also works as a notary through my library. In the past few years, many libraries have now begun offering notary services to the public for some documents. This almost never includes anything to do with real estate and we generally try to only notarize “low liability” documents. With the recent changes to the laws in Illinois concerning notaries, I have been look around for advice for policy and procedures changes. I know the majority of professional notaries work on real estate and loan documents as their major source of income, but what is the general opinion of other businesses or organizations that offer notary services?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
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Could you share some of the documents you mean when you say " “low liability” documents" Thanks.
What Illinois law changes concern you? And how do these changes concern your policies & procedures?
As to ‘other businesses’: UPS, AAA & many banks for customers only–at least, in AR. Don’t know about other states.
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Thank you for your quick replies. From our policy and many of the libraries that offer similar services, we do not cover: deeds, wills, living wills, trusts, real estate transactions, or documents pertaining to power of attorney.
In practice, this has meant we cover various kinds of affidavits and acknowledgements. Some very common ones have been 401k or retirement related. One we do not have clear guidelines on is any notarization that deals with non-real estate property transfers (such as the sale of a car).
IL Senate Bill 2664 introduces several new stipulations, though one that has concerned some libraries is the requirement of the notary journal, which is subject public inspection and subpoenas. In general, we try to keep as little information on patrons as possible.
My broader concern is that notary services are being adopted by more and more libraries, but there has been little guidance from professional organizations such as American Library Association on general best practices. As the new bill also stipulates new testing guidelines that are yet to be determined, now seemed like a good time to go over our policies.
Example policies from other Illinois public libraries:
West Chicago Public Library
Reddick Public Library
Thank you,
According to what I read about this bill on the 'net, it says:
- Provides that upon written request of a third party, which request must include the name of the parties, the type of document, and the month and year in which a record was notarized, a Notary public may supply a copy of the line item representing the requested transaction after personally identifying information has been redacted.
Therefore, it seems to me that the journal is NOT open to ‘public inspection’
and that personally identifying info has been redacted–whatever that means.
