Eleven Signings, a Faint Seal, and a Detective on the Line
Notary Ray performed 11 notarizations in one day at a busy real estate office. His seal is a self-inking stamp, and the last two impressions are partly faded: the state name is legible, his name is partly legible, and the commission expiration date is smudged beyond reading. Midway through the afternoon the office ran out of journal space, so Ray recorded four signers' details on sticky notes he folded into his bag, intending to transfer them later. He has not done so. Three days later a buyer calls demanding a copy of the journal page showing her sister's signature, a police detective calls requesting journal entries for two other dates, and a title company asks Ray to re-stamp a document from last week because the impression was too light to record.
1. What are the requirements for a notarial seal, and how should Ray handle the faded impressions and the re-stamp request?
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The seal must be legible and clear enough to be read from a photocopy or a scanned image, because recording offices copy documents and the seal is the authentication. Each required element - the notary's name, the state, and generally the commission expiration or status - must be discernible. A smudged expiration date is a defect, not a cosmetic problem.
For a light impression, the accepted remedy is to re-ink and apply a second, clean impression adjacent to or below the first, so both remain visible. He should not write over, trace, or embellish the existing seal.
The re-stamp request is different and cannot be accommodated the way the title company wants. The notarial act already occurred last week; he cannot apply a fresh seal now as though it were part of that act, and he certainly cannot attach a new certificate dated today. If the original is unusable, the parties bring the signer back, the signer appears and acknowledges execution again, and Ray performs a new act with a true current date and a clean impression. Some states provide a mechanism for a corrected or amended certificate; he should check his statute before inventing one, and should tell the title company which route applies.
2. What is wrong with the sticky-note journal practice, and how should Ray fix it now and going forward?
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Journal entries must be made contemporaneously or as soon as practicable, in the permanent, tamper-evident format the state prescribes - typically a bound book or an approved electronic journal with sequential entries. Sticky notes in a bag are not a journal: they detach, they can be lost or altered, they do not establish sequence, and they cannot be produced on demand by the commissioning authority.
Fix it now: transfer each entry to the official journal in chronological order, in the correct sequential position if the state permits, and mark clearly that the entries were reconstructed and on what date - he must not present them as if written at the time. Record for each act what the statute requires: date and time, type of act, document type and date, signer's name and address, the identification type, issuing authority, number, and expiration, the fee, the signer's signature, and any thumbprint the state requires for deeds or other instruments.
Going forward: carry a spare journal, never start an act without journal space, and if the state allows an electronic journal, keep a backup. A notary who has run out of journal space declines the appointment rather than improvising.
3. How should Ray respond to the buyer, the detective, and the title company?
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Buyer seeking her sister's page: decline. In most states the journal is not a public record, and copies are restricted to the signer, the notary's commissioning authority, and persons authorized by law. The requester is not the signer, and the page contains the sister's identification details and personal data. Ray can explain the rule and tell her the sister may request her own record through the proper process, or that a subpoena can be served. He should not confirm or deny what the page says.
Detective: identify the officer, verify credentials, and determine what authority his state requires - many statutes permit law enforcement inspection in the course of an investigation, others require a subpoena or court order. Provide copies only as the statute allows, never surrender the original journal, and log the request: who asked, when, what dates, what was provided, and under what claimed authority. If the detective is from another jurisdiction, be more careful, not less.
Title company: no journal access at all. If the document's seal is unusable, the remedy is re-execution by the signer, as above. Ray should also tell the title company to stop requesting a re-stamp; a written refusal protects him if the recording is later challenged.