Maryland Notary common mistakes
Maryland Notary · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Treating a notarization as a legal review of the document, refusing to proceed because the signer does not understand the contract's effect, or conversely telling the signer the document is legally valid.
Candidates carry over general legal knowledge and confuse the notary's limited role (identify the signer, confirm willingness, administer oath/acknowledgment) with giving legal advice or determining document validity. Maryland notaries are prohibited from giving legal advice or drafting documents as part of the notarial act.
What to do instead
Memorize the narrow scope: the notary verifies identity and willingness, witnesses the signature, and completes the certificate. If a signer asks whether the document is legal or binding, refer them to an attorney. Practice distinguishing 'confirming willingness' from 'explaining the document's legal effect.'
Performing a notarial act for a signer who is not physically present (or not present via an approved RON platform) and signing the certificate as if the signer appeared.
Candidates underestimate the presence requirement and assume a video call or a signed document mailed in is sufficient. In-person presence is required unless the act is a properly conducted remote online notarization through an authorized vendor.
What to do instead
State the presence rule explicitly before any act: the signer must appear personally before the notary, or the act must meet every RON requirement (approved platform, identity proofing, recording). If neither is satisfied, decline the act.
Not recording the notarial act in the journal, or recording it incompletely (missing date, type of act, signer name, or identification method), believing the journal is optional if the certificate is complete.
Candidates treat the journal as a backup rather than a required record, and they confuse certificate content with journal content. Maryland requires a notary to maintain a journal of notarial acts with specified entries.
What to do instead
Build a fixed journal checklist: date and time, type of notarial act, signer's name and address, identification method and details, and fee charged. Recite the checklist from memory and apply it to every practice scenario, including acts performed for free.
Using an unapproved or improperly controlled stamping device, or allowing another person to use the notary's stamp, and failing to report a lost or stolen stamp.
Candidates focus on the stamp's appearance and forget the custody and reporting obligations. The stamp is personal to the notary and must be kept secure; loss or theft triggers notification duties.
What to do instead
Memorize three rules: the stamp stays in the notary's sole custody, no one else may use it, and loss/theft must be reported as required. Practice scenarios that ask who may possess the stamp and what happens after it is misplaced.
Charging a fee for an act that must be performed without charge, or charging more than the statutory maximum for a single act, and separately charging travel without disclosing it.
Candidates remember that notaries may charge fees but not the ceiling or the categories of free acts. They also conflate the notarial fee with travel/mileage charges, which are governed separately.
What to do instead
Memorize the statutory maximum per act and the list of acts that must be free. When a question involves money, separate it into two buckets: notarial fee (capped, with free categories) and travel/mileage (separate, disclosed in advance). Answer only the bucket asked about.
Quoting a travel charge as a flat 'trip fee' without tying it to mileage or the statutory rate, or charging travel for a remote online notarization.
Candidates generalize from other states or from everyday practice and invent a convenience fee. Maryland travel charges are tied to mileage at the statutory rate, and RON involves no travel.
What to do instead
Use the formula: miles traveled times the statutory per-mile rate, disclosed to the signer before the appointment. For RON, state that no travel charge applies because no travel occurs. Practice a calculation question and a RON question side by side.
Performing a remote online notarization through a video platform that is not an authorized vendor, or skipping identity proofing or the recording/retention requirement because the signer was 'obviously' who they said they were.
Candidates assume any video tool satisfies RON, and they treat RON identity verification as equivalent to a casual visual check. Maryland RON requires an approved provider and specified identity-proofing and record-retention steps.
What to do instead
Memorize the RON gate list: authorized vendor, identity proofing, audio-video session, recording retained per the rules, and journal entry. If any gate is missing, the act is not a valid RON. Drill scenarios where one gate is deliberately absent.
Missing the application or renewal deadline and continuing to notarize while a commission has lapsed, or assuming renewal is automatic.
Candidates treat the commission like a driver's license renewal with a grace period. A lapsed commission means acts performed after expiration are improper, and renewal requires an affirmative application.
What to do instead
Memorize the commission term, the renewal application window, and the rule that notarizing after expiration is prohibited. Build a timeline exercise: date of commission, expiration date, earliest renewal filing, and last valid day to notarize.
Continuing to use an old name or address on the stamp and journal after a legal name change or move, without notifying the state as required.
Candidates separate 'personal life changes' from 'commission obligations' and forget that the commission record, stamp, and journal must reflect current information within the required timeframe.
What to do instead
Memorize the notification deadline for name and address changes and the requirement to update the stamp. Practice a scenario: notary marries in March and moves in June - list what must be reported, to whom, and by when.
Misidentifying the correct notarial certificate for the act requested - using an acknowledgment when an oath or affirmation (jurat) is required, or vice versa - and completing it with the wrong wording.
Candidates memorize certificate wording as text rather than as the legal function it performs. An acknowledgment certifies a voluntary signature; a jurat certifies the signer swore to the truth of the contents.
What to do instead
Anchor each certificate to its function: acknowledgment equals 'signed willingly'; jurat equals 'sworn under oath.' For each practice prompt, decide the function first, then select the certificate. Never substitute one for the other even if the signer requests it.