Myself and another person needed to get POA’s Medical and Financial notarized during COVID. Contacted Notary in my town that I had performed a Notarization for he and his wife. He agreed to come to my home and perform notarizations for both of us and we had 2 witnesses for each of us. We both paid fellow notary WA State Rate for signing. Knowing the other notary as nice reputable person (former police officer) made us all feel at ease. This was his retirement part time job. That’s my story of working with a fellow in town notary. 
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Do it. No issue. But NOT for free. Per sign fee and travel fee. or she can go to UPS store.
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Notaries only peruse the document to look for blanks and whether or not a certificate is attached. When a client calls I ask them what is the nature of the document and whether it has the certificate attached. If not, I ask them to check with the party requesting the certificate, what is required. I explain that the State of California charges $15 per notarized signature and depending on the time and place, I have a travel fee. If we get this far, I ask them regarding their schedule and location. Sometimes I can work them in between signings and I can adjust the travel fee accordingly.
Pricing for notary services is discretionary. If I am at the table and the client has an additional document, I will normally charge the $15 per notarized signature and waive the travel fee. If the client is needy I will waive the fee and travel. If I have a chance opportunity at a FedEx, this has happened a number of times, I charge only the $15 per notarized signature. I accept cash or Zelle, and with lesser happiness, PayPal. I used to accept checks but I realized that if there are ISF, I will be dinged with a fee so I only take checks from established clients.
I have never considered using Uber and Lyft for my transportation because I live in a large county consisting mostly of suburbs and driving is part of the job. If I were in a large city, where parking can be an issue, I might favor a ride-share option.
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I don’t see a problem in notarizing documents for another notary…unless you’re afraid she’ll find something in the way that you do your job that goes against accepted notary standards for your state.
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Yes, I have. Notaries know they can’t notarize their own stuff or anything connected to them. I don’t have a problem just because she’s also a Notary. That’s like not allowing a realtor whose not your realtor to see your house that’s for sale, coming with own realtor. Notaries and Realtors are people too., haha. I once had a notary signing agent who was living out of state do a Refinance because I had just gotten Sciatica and it was painful to sit down. The notary was my visiting daughter who came to the signing and facilitated the signing, merely saying sign and date here, but I notarized the documents myself. Neither of us personally knew the borrowers.
Yes because she’d be just like anyone else you don’t know that you notarize for.
Great observation Steve and he aluded to that in his original post. I can’t believe that guy laid out his whole life history. You guys ( not you ) played right along.
The irony is that 1 in every 30 Floridan over 18 holds a notary commission.
I’ve never asked a client to email me a copy of their documents so I can preview it first. Remember, you are positively identifying the signer who appears before you and performing a notarial act on the notarial certificate!
You only need to identify the signer, and notarize the doc. We don’t need to see it up front. She has every right to be cautious with her document, and the information it may hold. Bring extra certificates in case the one on the document isn’t compliant. Most everyone you notarize for you won’t know, so that part is moot.
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You stated you are concerned a document might be altered after you notarized it and how could you prove otherwise in court. My question is this. Are you keeping a copy of every document you notarized? And other than RON platforms, how are you keeping them?
My training is that we are to delete permanently all documents after printing. My journal serves the purpose that I witnessed the signature and verified the identity. You will never be held accountable for the content of the document. If an oath, the signer is in contempt of court if the document is signed under false pretences.
I know some states don’t require a journal but I’ve always had one so if I ever get called to court I have proof of what was provided to me. I also use NOTARY GADGET and write things in the note section about the signing - just to jog my memory. That has come in very handy. I had a call from a realtor that wanted to verify that an elderly woman signed a POA to sell property. My notes helped me to remember the signing and I verified she is of sound mind and signed willfully. I even mentioned the “area” where she said she had land she intended to sell and that he son was going to take care of it since she couldn’t travel. This all aligned with what the realtor was given. He was doing due diligence to ensure she wasn’t being taken advantage of by her son. I also did due diligence in having small talk conversation with her during the signing to ensure she was of sound mind and knew what she was signing.
Also, as a “mobile notary” I am thankful to be able to deduct the mileage for my car. That gives me money in my pocket at tax time. I know it may not help your day to day actual expenses and that you can also deduct Lyft. But it justifies my car. You may also consider a 
What comes around goes around, someday you will need a Notary! From this conversation, you will then need to be prepared to tell the Notary everything about what you are signing, the why, the results and the benefits. Really, if you are not careful, you might be practising law without a license.
In Texas the ratio is about 1 in 60 Texans holds a notary commission. Looks like Florida is ahead of Texas in market saturation.
You are spot on, the Notary’s responsibility is to Notarize Signatures, not the contents of a document.
IMO, the issue here is the definition of a “complete” document.
For the purposes of a real estate transaction, “complete” means a document upon which the signer’s name in the header (or other information such as a loan number matching that on the Deed/Mortgage) correctly reflects the name below the signature line.
This takes into account that often there are two sides to a real estate transaction - buyer and seller - and many states bar certain information from being disclosed to the other side. Also, as there is a time element (other parties depending upon close, rate locks, etc), escrow may ask a seller or buyer to sign an incomplete document to facilitate the close, understanding that escrow is waiting for a final closing statement or bill.
For general notary work, a “complete” document is one that has no blanks. For instance, I would never notarize a Will or Last Testament in which the name of the Testator was left blank. Nor would I notarize a Power of Attorney that did not clearly name the Grantor.
I find that understanding the actual purpose of a document helps make the decision as to how one should determine it’s status.
Great questions!
Obviously, you have already read numerous of opinions on your question. There’s a common consensus is that we should notarize a document for a fellow colleagues. It’s your own discernment to charge a fee or not to a fellow colleague. Normally, I would not charge a fee for the notarial act, but only charge for the platform usage costs associated with RON. Most importantly, we should not ask anyone to email a copy(ies) of their personal information prior to performing the service and including documents, unless we want to accept the liability responsibility of protecting their private personal information under the Gramm –Leach–Bliley Act ( GLBA ), also known as the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999. As for the refusal to notarize a person’s document, that’s a very slippery slope and best practice is to seek legal counsel from an attorney. I cannot answer for any other state, but in Florida you should not refuse anyone service unless it a fraudulent act. As others already stated, as Public Officials, our duties are to witness a signer’s signature, verify the signer identity, and fraud prevention. We do not legalize or verify the truthfulness of a signer’s documents, we only look over their documents for completeness or to make sure there’s no blank fields. Unfortunately, in this industry for new Notary Publics/Loan Signing Agents, you learn and develop experience as your perform more notarizations. When you do make a mistake and most likely you will, because we all have done so. Hopefully the mistakes you make, brings no serious consequences to you. My best advice, would be for you to find yourself a seasoned mentor. Good luck on your journey!
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So, again, would you as a Notary be willing to notarize things for another notary you hadn’t met yet and didn’t know?
I do FREE notarizations for prospective notaries in Washington who are completing their Washington Notary Application which must be signed before a notary public. THAT’S ABOUT IT. And it’s only free if they come to me. If I must travel to them, then they must pay a travel fee.
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Great advise. What is your advise if the document had blank spaces as in a worker’s compensation document. The signer’s attorney sends the document with blank spaces and tells her to sign and have it notarized. There were Jurats and Acknowledgements in the package. As a notary we are not to notarize a blank document.
It’s not a rule in every state that a notary must not notarize a document with blanks. Cjbarnes don’t say which state they are from. But it is a good practice to be very wary of blanks.
I’ve never done a worker’s compensation document. Is there some reason they are more apt to have blanks in them?
Argh… state forms! Or really any type of multiple choice, fill in the blanks form so receiving party has all the info it requires in order to do their job. Sadly, one state dept. too often does not coordinate their forms to meet the requirements of another state dept., so you will see a lot of incorrect or missing notary Certs on the form. You just have to use common sense and add ‘your state-compliant’ whatever the signer decides (Ack or Jurat?) Some of the ‘blanks’ simply do not apply to the situation and having signer write “N/A” will work. Personally, in these situations, I tell the signer ‘just choose’ and complete whatever they have chosen because, quite frankly, receiving party has no clue about what they want beyond ‘it needs a notary STAMP–so they can do their job’. A very wise lawyer once stated on another notary forum in response to this question “Your main job is to make certain that the person signing is who they say they are, not making their life difficult by over-thinking the matter.”
As to your actual question: Sounds like the attorney has no clue either. Have signer write “N/A” as appropriate.
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No my signer was just told to sign and get it notarized. I spoke with the attorney’ office; and, they said, “all you are doing is witnessing her signature.” I rebutted that there were Jurats and Acknowledgements for her to sign (for a settlement agreement and a general release and indemnity agreement). I had her fill in the blanks and then I notarized. But, they kicked it back reinterating that she sign and get it notarized without filling in blanks.