Yesterday I had an unusual encounter with a customer who waited until after my notarization was completed to inquire with her recipient of the document. Kathy took a careful look at my certificate and then checked instructions claiming she forgot she had problems with having certificates rejected in Chicago related to circled pronouns. This has never happened to me in the past 15 years and I knew it was really too late that I had already completed the lawful certificate.
I would have left out the delineations had she asked but I wasnât willing to do it over again. California law hasnât changed with any new certification forms related to pronouns but the CA SOS says itâs okay not to fill them out.
Itâs hard to help my customer understand California certificates are based on the law in our State that Chicago canât lawfully reject them over such issues. I donât expect to hear from her again.
You could have told her you completed correct notarizations, which she has to pay for. She is free to unstaple them and throw them away. Then you could do them again, but those would be new notarizations and you will charge for the new notarizations.
In California, itâs OK to notarize a signature using the embedded acknowledgment as long as we dont ID the signersâ title. We do have to use our state-specific jurat.
Now the question. (UPS) accepts walk-in notarizations. Notaries are truly thrown under the bus because no one wants to be screamed at in a public place because of a misgendering. There are serious civil penalties for not completing an acknowledgment at the time of the notarization. Leaving that part blank is probably opening a door to having the notarization later rejected in court, and I doubt that E&O covers it. I noticed when I renewed my driverâs license recently that I could choose not to reveal my sex. Having not yet been presented with an ID without that information I figured when the time came I would just ask the signer and go with whatever I was told. That would hopefully give me plausible deniability. As we all know, those questions are there to prevent fraud. Leaving it blank allows some unscrupulous person to later add a name and commit felony mortgage fraud. As the poor notary, you might get cleared of wrongdoing, but you can kiss your bond goodbye.
Iâve read that the CA SOS has issued guidance that the he/she/they wording can be left as is. I donât know if the guidance discussed the is/are wording. The CA jurat wording doesnât mention gender.
The way I read CheryIMâs post, it seems like she circled the relevant gender and the signer told Cheryl, after Cheryl was finished, that she didnât want the gender circled. Of course thereâs no way to uncircle the gender except by replacing the certificate.
As for the certificate being rejected because the gender wasnât circled, anybody can reject anything. According to Cherylâs signer, somebody in Chicago has a reputation for rejecting certificates that HAVE the gender circled. There have been reports in forums that CA recorders have rejected certificates because the notary deleted all but the correct gender while the document was in electronic form, and the finished certificate just said âheâ rather than he/she/they.
The last time I did a document headed to CA, I just struck the certificate out, initialed, wrote âsee attached VT compliant certificateâ and attached a VT short certificate that doesnât mention gender.
Thanks for your feedback. I actually ended up leaving it the way I wanted that it was correct and she should have asked me prior to my working on the document. I wasnât about to do it over again.
Yes I know they said itâs okay not to work on the pronouns. The confusion over the issue is anyone can reject an acknowledgement if they so please, but it doesnât make it legal to do so.
Hey Cheryl, if you look at this yearâs handbook, I believe they put a note in there stating that notaries should not alter the pronouns in a certificate any longer.
Excerpt from 2024 California Notary Handbook under Acknowledgment:
âNote: California notarial law does not provide a provision requiring a California notary public to cross out, or not cross out, pronouns such as he/she/they, on a notarial certificateâŠâ
My interpretation would be that itâs okay to do either â cross out pronouns or not. I continue to cross out and underline.
Hello,
Recently did my class and exam with the NNA. The teachers said CA does not allow CA notaries to specifiy gender anymore.
Matt can you help with clarifying as there seems be 2 different reports as to what the handbook says and actually means.
Thank you!
Just called SOS and they said notaries have a choice - can either select the pronoun or skip it altogether. And 2024 handbooks are only in PDF - no handbooks to mail out to us in September.
Hi Matt, I saw that too. The clerks at the Sacramento office of the Secretary of State have been reviewing my acknowledgments and jurats several times a week for decades. To have one rejected for that reason would potentially harm both my clients and my business. My other concern is does that ânoteâ legally absolve the notary from for example potential mortgage fraud if someone is added to the document after the notarization? The common sense answer is no unless there is an actual legislated change in the acknowledgment such as when the disclaimer was added or when âpersonally knowâ was removed.
Wow! CA SOS hasnât mailed me a handbook in YEARS. In fact, I recently discovered that there WAS a 2024 handbook. No email notification, nada. And, yes, I HAD checked for a 2024 handbook early this year. It wasnât on their site. I donât know when they got around to issuing it.
