Criminal and Civil Liability

A notary may be found criminally liable to an injured party if the notary willfully and knowingly performs a notarial act that is in breach of the notary’s official duty. These acts could include forgery, extortion, perjury and any other means in which the notary causes harm by willingly and knowingly performing a notarial act that is fraudulent or otherwise violates the duties of the notary.

In addition, a notary may be found civilly liable to an injured party if the notary performs a notarial act with negligence. These acts can include notarizing a document that is incomplete, failing to properly identify the signer, and any other errors or omissions from the notary that cause harm to the party involved.

Failure to include the notarial certificate, seals, signature, printed name, or leaving any of parts blank could result in civil or criminal liability of the notary.

A notary that fails to include the notarial certificate with a notarization may be charged with a criminal or civil crime for failure to authenticate. If there is no room on document next to the acknowledgement or jurat the notary may place the notarial certificate on the back of the same page or insert it on a blank page as the next page and indicate next to their seal that the notarial certificate is on the back of the page or on the following page.