Can You Stamp Each Page of My Document?
A recent phone call I received, “I had my three page document notarized by another notary. My bank wants each page stamped. Can you do this for me?” asked the caller. I informed him that California notaries can only place their stamps when notarial wording is on the page. A loose notary certificate can be attached to each page if each page is signed. He was adamant to only have the notary stamp on each page. I replied, “California notaries can only use their stamp on each page if each page is signed and there is notarial wording on each page or a loose notary certificate is attached to each page.” He was not satisfied with my reply. This is probably the same reply he received from the notary who notarized his document.
Here is the rule from the California Notary Public Handbook 2012. The Secretary of State has the rule in upper case letters.
“A NOTARY PUBLIC SHALL NOT USE THE OFFICIAL SEAL OR THE TITLE NOTARY PUBLIC FOR ANY PURPOSE OTHER THAN THE RENDERING OF NOTARIAL SERVICE. (Government Code section 8207)”
The alternative is if I notarized the document, I can emboss each page of the document that does not have the reproducible notary stamp. Since the embosser is not reproducible this can be done. The recipient knows the embossed pages are part of the notarized document and no pages were added or exchanged. Since I was not the notary who notarized his document, I cannot emboss the pages. His/her notary stamp and my notary stamp are unique, so our notary stamps would not match, which would cause confusion.
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Tags: notary public seal
D Coleman
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It is interesting because this is the same as the practice in Australia where a notary public has to bind the document together so that it cannot be taken apart and altered the binding also has to be sealed with the wafer.
Cathy
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Thank you for sharing D Coleman. I am glad to know that Australia has a sound practice to protect the public too with binding the document together and sealing it with the wafer.