CO Notary common mistakes
CO Notary · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Treating the notary commission as a general license to give legal advice, draft documents, or explain what a document means to the signer, rather than limiting oneself to identifying the signer and administering the oath or acknowledgment.
Candidates confuse the notary's ministerial role with legal practice, often because friends or clients ask 'what does this mean?' and the notary wants to be helpful. Exam questions test whether the candidate knows the boundary between notarial acts and unauthorized practice of law.
What to do instead
Memorize the distinction: a notary may perform ministerial acts (take acknowledgments, administer oaths and affirmations, certify copies where authorized, witness signatures) but may never select documents, explain legal effect, or advise on consequences. When a scenario asks what the notary should do, choose the answer that declines to advise and refers the signer to an attorney.
Completing a notarial certificate with the wrong act type - for example, using an acknowledgment form for a jurat or a jurat for an acknowledgment - because both look like generic 'notarized' blocks.
Candidates skim the certificate wording and focus on the signature line. The two acts differ in who administers the oath and where the signer's presence is certified: a jurat requires the signer to swear or affirm before the notary, while an acknowledgment certifies the signer appeared and acknowledged execution.
What to do instead
Learn the trigger phrases. 'Sworn and subscribed before me' signals a jurat and requires the notary to administer an oath. 'Acknowledged before me' signals an acknowledgment and requires no oath. Practice matching sample certificates to the correct act and reject any certificate that lacks the required elements for the act requested.
Notarizing without the signer physically present in front of the notary, or accepting a signature that was already completed and then mailing the document in for a stamp.
Convenience pressure and remote-work habits lead candidates to assume a video call or a pre-signed document is enough. Traditional in-person notarization requires personal appearance, and pre-signed documents cannot be acknowledged because the notary must witness or receive the acknowledgment contemporaneously.
What to do instead
Apply the personal-appearance rule strictly: the signer must appear before the notary at the time of the act. For pre-signed documents, the signer must still appear and acknowledge the signature. Only a compliant remote notarization process, with identity proofing and audio-video recording as required by the applicable statute, substitutes for physical presence.
Failing to record every notarial act in the journal, or recording only 'difficult' acts, leaving gaps in the sequential log.
Candidates treat the journal as optional paperwork and skip entries when busy. RULONA-style rules require a contemporaneous, sequential record of each act, and gaps create credibility problems and can support disciplinary findings.
What to do instead
Adopt a discipline of journaling immediately after each act, before the signer leaves. Record date, time, act type, document description, signer name and address, identification method and details, and fee. Never leave blank lines that could later be filled in; draw a line through unused space.
Misunderstanding the stamp or seal requirements - using an expired stamp, a stamp missing required elements such as commission expiration date or county, or stamping over text so the impression is illegible.
Candidates memorize 'notaries need a stamp' without learning the required contents and placement rules, and they reuse old stamps after renewal. Illegible or incomplete impressions can invalidate the notarial certificate.
What to do instead
Memorize the required stamp elements for your jurisdiction (typically name, commission number, commission expiration, and county or state) and verify them before each use. Replace stamps at renewal, keep the impression clear of signatures and text, and re-stamp legibly rather than layering impressions.
Confusing the Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts with older state statutes, and applying outdated rules such as different identification standards or signature-by-mark rules.
Many candidates studied under pre-RULONA state law or learned from informal sources. RULONA changed identification, journaling, remote notarization, and certificate requirements, and exam questions are drafted against the current uniform framework.
What to do instead
Build a one-page comparison of RULONA requirements versus legacy rules for identification, journal retention, certificate content, and remote acts. When a question cites a statute, answer from the RULONA text, not from memory of older practice.
Assuming remote notarization is a free-form video call, without identity proofing, without a tamper-evident recording, and without the required technology provider or registration.
Candidates extrapolate from personal video-calling experience and skip the statutory safeguards. Remote notarization under RULONA requires identity proofing, audio-video communication, and often registration with the commissioning authority or use of an approved provider.
What to do instead
Learn the remote notarization checklist: approved communication technology, identity proofing by oath or credible evidence, recording retention, notation in the journal that the act was performed remotely, and any registration or provider requirement. Apply the checklist to every remote scenario question.
Missing renewal deadlines or failing to report a change of name, address, or employer, then continuing to notarize on a lapsed or inaccurate commission.
Candidates focus on the initial application and treat renewal and updates as administrative trivia. Notarizing after expiration or after an unreported move is a common disciplinary trigger, and exam questions test the reporting timelines.
What to do instead
Calendar the renewal window and the expiration date, and know the reporting deadline for address or name changes in your jurisdiction. Treat any change in commission status as a stop-notarizing event until corrected. Review the application, renewal, and update requirements as a single lifecycle.
Handling a language barrier by translating the document or the oath personally, or by allowing a bilingual friend to interpret without following the statutory interpreter procedure.
Candidates want to help and assume any bilingual person can interpret. Notaries who are not qualified interpreters may not translate, and many jurisdictions require a specific interpreter certification, oath, or certificate attached to the notarial act.
What to do instead
Know the interpreter rules: the notary may not act as interpreter unless qualified and permitted, the interpreter must be identified and often must sign a certificate, and the notarial certificate must reflect the interpreter's involvement. When in doubt, decline and refer to a qualified interpreter.
Using a certificate of fact to certify the truth of a document's contents, or certifying a copy of a record the notary is not authorized to copy, instead of limiting the certificate to the facts the notary personally observed.
Candidates conflate 'certificate of fact' with a guarantee of accuracy. A certificate of fact attests only to what the notary witnessed or verified, such as appearance, identity, or the act performed, not to the truth of the underlying statements.
What to do instead
Draft and recognize certificate-of-fact language that states only observed facts: who appeared, how identity was verified, what act was performed, and when. Refuse to certify content truth or to copy records outside the authorized categories such as public records or original documents where copy certification is permitted.