Lack of Notary training or proper understanding of state Notary laws can result in mistakes that cause major difficulties for signers in any field.
Consider, for example, the political candidate in Georgia — which has no education requirement — who was removed from a ballot because his wife both notarized and circulated election petitions on his behalf in conflict with a state law.
In Minnesota, a UPS delivery driver has spent years enduring legal and financial hardships after a fraud ring stole his identity and an unsuspecting Notary failed to properly identify the imposter. Minnesota is another state that does not require Notaries to be trained.
In fact, less than a dozen states require Notaries to take a mandatory training course, and only four — California, Colorado, North Carolina and Oregon — require Notaries to take an education course and exam to qualify for their commission.
And education bills proposed this year made little if any headway with state lawmakers.
A few bills with education or exam-related provisions were introduced by state lawmakers this year, but were rejected or died — such as West Virginia’s HB 4012, which had an examination requirement in the original introduced version of the bill. The introduced version also required the Secretary of State or an entity approved by the Secretary to regularly offer training courses to Notary commission applicants. These provisions were later stricken from the bill.
The NNA provides complimentary educational resources for Notaries including webinars on commonly asked questions and best practices; our searchable online Law Updates database with information on changes to state Notary laws, and Notary Bulletin articles on new changes affecting Notaries Public.The NNA urges Notaries to take advantage of these complimentary resources to educate themselves beyond state requirements.
David Thun is an Associate Editor at the National Notary Association.