Notarial Recordkeeping and Registers
A notarial journal or register is the contemporaneous record of each notarial act. Many jurisdictions require it, and even where optional, it is the notary's best protection in litigation. Entries typically include the date and time, the type of act, the document title or description, the signer's name and address, the identification type and number, the fee charged, the signature of the signer, and the notary's signature. The journal should be bound, paginated, and retained for the statutory period, often five to ten years after the commission ends.
Registers must be accurate and contemporaneous. Traps include back-filling entries days later, omitting the identification details, recording a fee that exceeds the statutory maximum, and allowing a signer to sign a blank line. The notary should never record confidential content beyond what statute requires, and should safeguard the journal from loss, alteration, and unauthorized access. When a notary resigns, moves, or lets a commission lapse, the journal is generally deposited with the commissioning authority or retained as statute directs; it is not simply discarded.
Seals and stamps are related recordkeeping tools. The seal should be legible, include the notary's name and commission expiration where required, and be applied only to completed certificates. Traps include using a seal after the commission expires, applying a seal to a blank page, and failing to record the seal's use. Electronic notarization requires tamper-evident technology and retention of the electronic record.
Rule of thumb: if it is not in the journal, it did not happen. Worked example: a notary notarizes an acknowledgment but forgets to record the ID; months later a dispute arises, and the missing entry undermines the notary's account, so the notary should have recorded the ID type and number at the time of the act.