The notary

A notary is a public officer constituted by law to serve the public in matters concerning estates, deeds and international business. The main tasks of notaries are taking statutory declarations, witnessing and autentification of documents, administration of affirmations, as well as taking acknowledgements of deeds, protest notes and bills of exchange. More responsibilities of a notary are providing notices of foreign drafts, marine or ship’s protests in case of damage, providing notarial copies and other offical acts. All those tasks can be called also notarization.

There are no common requirements for education and conditions vary drastically from country to country. In some countries law or equivalent studies of secondary education are required, in others not. Notaries, in some countries it is necessary to undergo a special training in performing the prospect duties. Even licensed lawyers have to follow specific studies for two years, however in other countries it is only necessary to attend a short course of study.

Notaries are in charge for drafting and execution of legal documents. Their responsibilities tradionally include the preparation of certain types of documents (e.g. internal contracts, deeds, wills, etc.) and certification of their due execution, as well as certification of copy documents, noting and protesting of bills of exchange and many more. The documents certified by notaries are recognizeable by a special seal (or stamp in some cases). He has furthermore to keep all certified documents which is called “”protocol”".

Some court reporters are required to be a notary public. Notaries cannot deny by law to serve to the public unless he or she cannot prove that the signature is false or the person is to be doubted for mental awareness.