Who does these things and WHY???

I hope anyone can help me with this…I have recently become a Notary. During my Notary class, one of the students asked a question that I certainly wanted to know the answer too. “Can a Notary allow others to use their journal and seal to do a signing if the Notary was unavailable?” Wow, I thought…could this be so? Others are doing what I have seen done in an office I used to work in??? The teacher said, “NEVER!” She quoted laws and all I could do was gulp and hope to God that all those I’ve seen do this would never get in trouble. I know for a fact that they had no idea what the Notary laws were. But I do know that the Notary should have known better. Recently I ran across this young lady who was our office Notary and I found out that she has three journals running sequentially. This was on a day that I asked her to Notarize a letter for my wife and I. She watched us sign and did not take out her journal to record or have us sign the book. Being a Notary, I called her attention to it and she said to me, “I don’t have to put it in my book if I know you”. There is more ugly stuff, but I’ll hold back for now.

My questions are:

1. Has anyone experienced the same situations where the Notary has lent out her/his with the notary expressed permission to do the job with out her/him?

2. Are any of you aware of any criminal cases where a notary was criminally charged for willful acts and/or intentional?

3. If a Notary so freely lends out her book to others and a crime has been charged…would you agree with me that the crime would have never happened if it weren’t for the Notary who careless about her/his designation as a Notary.

wow.never heard of such a thing, and how terrible for someone to take such lack of regard for her appointed position, I would NOT allow anyone like that to sign for me, I know I have been in a few signings where the person who sat before me was a notary herself and let me tell you, they were just LOOKING for me to screw up, lol I didn’t however because I do take serious measures to be professional and such, but wow, I can’t believe anyone would even do such a thing. I do have a friend who keeps 2 journals, one in her office and one in her briefcase, so far okay for her, but I sure wouldn’t want to lose my commission or my paychecks for something so small.

Yes I do agree the notaries carelessness and lack of respect for her job and position would be the responsibility of the “mess-up” and by law I am sure it is. She has an obligation to keep her journal and stamp SECURE and PRIVATE….if she neglects to do that and especially freely shares it with others when she can not preform the acts, well then SCREW her and I hope she rots!!!! But thats just my lil ole opinion…lol

I have had my notary 30+ years and I NEVER lend it out and it gets locked up the state I am from would not let you do that and have pulled notary license for doing just that kind of thing and I am curious because we have to pay taxes on that money we make from that journal and to say the least what is she going to do when she is called into to court to testify on a case that she supposedly notarized she will be sure to lose her license for sure and shame on her for that she should know better it makes the rest of us notaries have to work harder for trust from customers

I am thankful for both your responses. It is easy to be in your own little world and not know this is going on, but let me tell you this crap is happening. I am NOT making excuses at all, but here in California it is fast pace. Got to have it now…got to get done now….got to make it happen right now. Everyone is in a hurry. And when you are working with people who you think you trust…then careless things happen. Nobody signed her name…they just took the book and seal and witnessed the signing for her. You are absolutely right…if it came down to some kind of litigation and the Notary had to appear and the people who were at the signing said she was not there…then yes she is in big trouble. I know for a fact that the State of California knows all about this and they have not done anything to her for this. She of course has lied to them and the DA and said that my friend stole her journal…but let me tell you, standing alone, her journal is appalling. It is out of order; missing signature, X’d out items, or the word “VOID” was used. That alone should cause a person to lose their license in any state. I would tell your friend to NOT keep two journals. All journals must be in sequential order. That can’t possibly happen in two different books. You can be the most honest person, but happenstance happens in the lives of those we have signed and we might all be called forward one day to account for what we have recorded in our journals. Then…BAM! You lose your license for something so silly. I hope that more of you out there will join in on this subject…I would love to hear everyone’s responses.

I have only had my commission for a few months so I was required to take the manditory Notary Class. Even though I only sign a few docs a month, I only got it for my boss, I know that you should never leave your journal anywhere unattended. I am in California and there are pretty strict consequences for violating notary laws. My sisters work for a mortgage company and I do signings for them every once in a while. Their normal Notary is gone on hiatus for a few months. Unfortunately the normal Notary also allows others to do the signing for her, she just signs the docs whenever she gets around to it. She also backdates docs. I know both of these things are illegal. I have been asked to backdate already since the other notary does it and I had to pass on the signing because I refused to do it. What sucks is that I, being a moral and honest notary, have to miss out on signings because other notarys are willing to do it dishonestly. I have thought about turning her in to the state but I don’t want to possibly cause her jail time, which is possible in California.

Zenda…Thank you so much for your kindness and writing me back. With all that is within me…I plead that you never back date on loan docs. I too am in California and I know for a fact that the State of California is very lazy and do not do their job to crake down on this stuff. This gal I was talking about…well I seen her journals and it had all kinds of errors, forged signatures, missing data, etc…and in the State’s report they did NOTHING, NOTHING to her at all. Now about that OTHER notary…you can report her…but be wise and make good choices for yourself…she will get caught one day. Have a good rest of the week. Ike