Drafting, Form and Execution of Notarial Acts, Certificates and Attestations
Anatomy of a certificate
A notarial act must be self-proving on its face. Whether the style is a short attestation or a full civil-law escript, the certificate should identify the place and date of the act; the notary's name and capacity; the person who appeared and the means of identification; what that person did (signed, swore, affirmed, acknowledged); any exhibits or annexures; and the notary's signature and seal. Multi-page documents should be bound, and the pages initialled or the certificate should state the number of pages.
Drafting points
Draft in the first person and past tense: “On this 4th day of March 2025, before me, [name], Notary Public, personally appeared…”. A jurat records that the deponent swore or affirmed; an attestation records that the person signed in the notary's presence. Do not mix them. Do not certify a copy as “true and correct” of an original you have not seen; say “certified true copy of the original produced to me”. Never backdate; never leave a certificate undated or unsealed. Certificates should be attached to the document and cross-refer to it precisely, even where a separate loose certificate is unavoidable.
Traps
Examiners favour: certifying a signature the notary did not see made; writing “sworn” where the person affirmed; omitting the identification method; and wording asserting the notary's belief in the truth of the contents. Corrections should be made by striking through, initialling and dating, never by erasure or correction fluid.
Rule of thumb: read the certificate as a stranger would - can they tell who appeared, how they were identified, exactly what happened, where and when?
Worked example: “Signed by A.B. in my presence at Dublin on 4 March 2025, A.B. having been identified to me by passport no. X and by C.D., whom I know.” Short, complete and safe.