Ha ha, don’t get me started Bobby, I could write a book. When you’re a Notary, you get special Bail Bondsman privileges at the County Jail. I used to know guys in Ocean Beach who would hang outside the gate at Los Colinas after dark. When they released the adies from jail, they gave them their belongings and a handful of Bus Tokens. These OB pirates offer them free rides to the bars.
Normally, I do not read the entire document, as my role is to notarize the identity of the signer—not the contents of the document itself. However, the statement commonly found on California documents continues to raise questions:
“I certify under penalty of perjury under the laws of the State of California that the foregoing paragraph is true and correct.”
Taking the time to read further, the language immediately above that statement provides important clarification. It states:
“The following statement applies to documents notarized in the State of California—A notary public or other officer completing this certificate verifies only the identity of the individual who signed the document to which this certificate is attached, and not the truthfulness, accuracy, or validity of that document.”
With that said, as a notary public—and not an attorney—I do not practice law. My role is limited to performing notarial acts, primarily acknowledgments and jurats, which are defined as follows:
Acknowledgment:
An acknowledgment confirms that I have verified the signer’s identity and that the signer willingly signed the document and agreed to its terms.
Jurat:
A jurat confirms that I have verified the signer’s identity and willingness to sign, and that the signer has taken an oath or affirmation swearing that the contents of the document are true.
In both cases, the responsibility for the truthfulness and accuracy of the document rests solely with the signer—not the notary.
Okay, let’s try for a little clarity here.
The “perjury clause” is only included in the Acknowledgment verbiage (not in the Jurat). Let’s decipher this. Here’s a California-compliant Acknowledgment:
"ACKNOWLEDGMENT
[ A notary public or other officer completing this certificate verifies only the identity of the individual who signed the document to which this certificate is attached, and not the truthfulness, accuracy, or validity of that document.]
State of California
County of _____________________________)
On ________before me, ________________________insert name and title of the officer) personally appeared _____________________________________,
who proved to me on the basis of satisfactory evidence to be the person(s) whose name(s) is/are subscribed to the within instrument and acknowledged to me that he/she/they executed the same in his/her/their authorized capacity(ies), and that by his/her/their signature(s) on the instrument the person(s), or the entity upon behalf of which the person(s) acted, executed the instrument.
I certify under PENALTY OF PERJURY under the laws of the State of California that the foregoing paragraph is true and correct. WITNESS my hand and official seal.
Signature ______________________________ (Seal)"
Note: The disclaimer box appears here in brackets rather than the required box format.
That disclaimer clearly states the notary’s role being that of verifying identity.
The perjury clause applies ONLY to the paragraph immediately preceding that clause – date, notary’s name, appearing principal’s name, etc.
This is a highly exotic certificate and I have yet to come accross one in my 9 years experience and probaby 10,005 signings. We are not allowed to advise our signers in California as to what kind of vegetable to serve with dinner however we can suggest they contact the entity requiring the certificate to ask if it should be a Jurat or Acknowledgement. A Jurat involves a sworn or affirmed statement and an Acknowledgement only requires the person appear in front of you. Since these are usually rush jobs and no one is available at the other end I have four ways to deal with this:
- notarize anyways with their certificate making changes as required i.e. we do not put capacity in a certificate in California.
- wait until more information is obtained
- provide one of each, Jural and Ackie with the optional field filled out describing the instrument it is attached to and note it in the Journal.
- Encourage them to visit UPS.
California notaries see certificates from all over the country and as long as the property is located outside of California, can’t force our Ackies on the documents, we must, however inconvenient, swap out Jurats regardless. Not swapping out Jurats will probably not cause a ripple but why risk blowout on the 1000th time when it did? Sworn statments, baby. swore statments.
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