Company, Commercial, Banking and Shipping Documents
Corporate and commercial acts
Notaries certify copies of certificates of incorporation, constitutions, registers and board or shareholder resolutions, and certify incumbency and authority of directors and officers. The discipline is constant: verify against an authoritative source, describe exactly what you saw, and avoid certifying matters of foreign law. Company execution formalities - section 43 of the Companies Act 2014 for deeds - should be checked, not assumed. Banking documents, guarantees and security agreements commonly require attestation of signature and sometimes a certificate that the signatory is authorised and understood the document.
Negotiable instruments and protests
The Bills of Exchange Act 1882 still frames bills of exchange and promissory notes. Where a bill is dishonoured by non-acceptance or non-payment, the holder may have it noted and protested; the notary notes the dishonour on the instrument or a ticket, and later draws up the protest recording presentment, demand, the answer given and the notary's declaration. Timing is critical: noting must ordinarily be effected on the day of dishonour or within the permitted short period, failing which recourse against drawers and endorsers may be lost. Ships' protests are a separate tradition: the master attends before a notary to record the circumstances of damage or loss at sea, supported by the log and crew statements.
Traps
Examiners like: protesting without evidence of presentment and refusal; confusing noting with protest; assuming protest is required for every dishonour (it is required for foreign bills and optional for inland bills); and treating a ship's protest as proof of liability rather than as evidence.
Rule of thumb: for a protest, record four facts - what was presented, when, to whom, and what answer was received.
Worked example: a bill drawn in Dublin on a London acceptor is dishonoured on presentation. Noting is done promptly, and the notarial protest records presentation at the named address, the demand made and the refusal received.