HI all. So I had a weird situation last night. I’m a fairly new notary in NJ and was asked to be a witness for a notarization of a will at a care facility. When I got there the notary told me he had already notarized it hours earlier and had already left. He said all I had to do was contact the relative who had the paperwork and sign in the witness spot. I told him I wouldn’t do that since I hadn’t actually witnessed the signing and I was given quite an attitude about it. From all that I’ve read this is not normal practice and could invalidate the signing. Am I crazy or is this not normal or OK?
3 Likes
You were correct to decline to do that. The other notary was clearly breaking rules.
6 Likes
No it is not normal and you were right to refuse. Not only did you not witness it, but if it had a Self-Proving Affidavit on it (some do, some don’t) then you’re swearing under oath that the signer asked you to be a witness, that you witnessed the signing, etc etc.
No no….good call.
4 Likes
@sgmoskowitz23 It’s alarming to report that you’ve recently had a concerning interaction with a Notary Public, someone who appears to be disregarding ethical and legal boundaries by being willing to commit illegal acts within the context of notarization procedures. Remember part of our duties is fraud prevention. That Notary put you in bad situation, that relative is going to very upset with the outcome of their family’s paperwork. I am not an attorney, should that will gets filed with the probate court or any legal office things will not be good.
1 Like
Good call. Best advice I ever received was that the first part of the title of Notary is the word No. Don’t be afraid to say no anytime you have doubt.
I always consider the underlying purpose of the actions I’m performing from the view point of the law or a judge looking at the document in court. The legal intention of witnessing is to literally witness an act. If the documents were contested and I was called into court, what would I tell the judge?
2 Likes
You did the right thing! First of all doing Wills in a place as such needs a lot of scrutiny by the notary. Even being a witness, if you see the signer isn’t mentally there, you are attesting you were there, and they were okay. No way!!
RUN! There is a lot of scary things happening more and more.
I’m sure somebody did it, just be glad it wasn’t you. I would have even called my hiring party and filled them in on that game they are playing.
You did the correct thing by not signing.
Good call, sounds like something shady was going on there. With elderly, there is a lot of potential for abuse of situations. I wouldn’t have done it either. As a matter of fact, I had a similar situation last week. PoA and the son walks up to me with paperwork already signed by all parties and I was like , nope. I didn’t see anything, therefore I’m not notarizing anything. I still made him pay a trip charge.
Not crazy and not normal! Your spidey senses were up!
You are correct, you have to witness the signature.