Notarial acts

Study notes · 57 practice questions · 34 in the mock pool

Acknowledgments

• What an acknowledgment certifies, and why the signature need not be made in front of the notary.
• The certificate wording prescribed for acknowledgments taken in California, including the disclosure box.
• Out-of-state certificate forms, and documents that arrive with no notarial wording at all.
• The civil penalty for a false certificate.

Jurats

• What a jurat certifies, and how it differs from an acknowledgment.
• The wording of the oath, and the requirement that the signer raise the right hand.
• The statutory jurat form, and why a jurat cannot be executed by mail.

Proof of execution

• What a proof of execution is for, and which documents are excluded from it.
• The relationship between the subscribing witness and the principal, and what the witness must have observed.
• How the subscribing witness is identified, and the journal signatures a proof requires.

Common to all three

• Who must personally appear before the notary, and what 'personally appear' rules out.
• Completing the certificate at the time of the act.