The $90 Hospital Invoice
Rosa is a Maryland notary who advertises "mobile notary - hospitals and nursing homes." A discharge planner calls: a patient at a hospital 26 miles from Rosa's home needs five documents notarized at 7:30 p.m., four acknowledgments and one jurat for an affidavit. The family agrees to Rosa's quote of $10 per signature plus $40 travel. Rosa drives 52 miles round trip, spends 1 hour and 40 minutes at the hospital, including 25 minutes waiting for the patient's daughter to arrive, and completes all five acts. She writes one invoice: "5 notarizations @ $10 = $50; travel = $40; total $90." The family later disputes the bill and asks whether Maryland limits what a notary may charge.
1. What is the maximum notarial fee Rosa may charge for the five acts, and is $10 per signature permissible?
Read the worked answer
No. Maryland caps the fee for each notarial act at $4, so the five acts yield a maximum of $20 in notarial fees. Charging $10 per signature produces $50, which is $30 above the cap. The cap applies per act, not per hour, per document page, or per signature line; the four acknowledgments and the jurat are five separate acts here, so the calculation is five times $4. Rosa may not label the excess as a convenience fee, a waiting fee, or an after-hours fee, because those labels would evade the statutory limit. She should bill $20 for the notarial work and treat travel as a separate, disclosed charge.
2. How should the travel charge be analyzed, and what is the maximum compliant total on these facts?
Read the worked answer
Maryland allows a notary to charge separately for travel, but the charge must be reasonable and is measured against the IRS standard mileage rate. For 52 round-trip miles at the 2025 rate of 70 cents per mile, the mileage component is 52 times $0.70, or $36.40. Rosa's $40 travel charge exceeds that benchmark by $3.60. Her waiting time is not a separate notarial fee and should have been built into the quoted travel arrangement or absorbed. The maximum compliant total is therefore $20 in notarial fees plus $36.40 in mileage, or $56.40. She charged $90, so she should refund $33.60 and issue an itemized corrected invoice.
3. What should Rosa's invoice and journal show, and what should she change in her practice?
Read the worked answer
The invoice should separately state the number and type of notarial acts, the per-act fee, the travel distance and rate, and the total. Her journal should record each act, the fee charged for that act, and the signer details, so the fee cap can be audited later. Going forward she should quote the statutory per-act maximum rather than a flat per-signature rate, disclose travel as mileage at the IRS rate, and get the family's agreement in writing before the trip. If she wants to serve after-hours hospital calls, she must accept that the $4 cap still applies; she cannot monetize the hour or the inconvenience through the notarial fee itself.