Notary Public Duties and Responsibilities
The Core Duty: Screening Before Acting
A New Jersey notary's central responsibility is to confirm three things before every notarial act: that the signer is physically present before the notary, that the signer is personally known to the notary or has been satisfactorily identified by reliable identification, and that the signer appears to understand the nature of the document and is acting voluntarily. A notary may never notarize for an absent signer, and may never delegate these checks.
Personal Appearance and Identification
Physical presence is non-waivable for traditional in-person acts. Acceptable identification is generally a current government-issued photo ID (driver's license, passport, state ID) or a credible witness personally known to the notary who knows the signer. A notary who relies on an expired ID, a photocopy, or a stranger's say-so has failed the identification duty. Trap: questions often offer "a coworker vouched for the signer" - vouching by someone the notary does not personally know is not satisfactory identification.
Journal and Recordkeeping
New Jersey notaries must keep a record of notarial acts, capturing the date, the parties, the document type, and the identification relied upon. The journal is the notary's evidence of due care; sloppy or missing entries are a frequent disciplinary theme.
Conflicts and Disqualification
A notary may not notarize their own signature, may not act in a transaction in which they have a direct beneficial interest, and should decline when the signer's competence or voluntariness is doubtful. The duty runs to the integrity of the act, not to the person who paid for it.
Rule of Thumb
Present, Proven, Purposeful - no act without appearance, identification, and apparent willingness. If any of the three fails, the answer in a multiple-choice item is almost always "refuse the act."