How To Record Multiple Notary Journal Entries For A Single Assignment

I have checked with a few different sources, California does not require separate journal entries for each notary on the same signing, however, it is recommended but there is no law in place.

This appears in the middle of your article so I need to get rid of it therefore I am completing it. Thank you.

Please show examples

Unfortunately for the professional Notary Signing Agent who follows the law and regs to the letter in CA: Title and lender packages I've seen lately have had 20-26 separate signatures to be notarized. This means that each document signature notarized must have a complete, separately written journal entry. Which I do comply with, but I know many local NSA's don't follow this rule and take short cuts. @Ray Leyva, this is not an easy nor quick process. I have discussed this with signing services at length and they will not pay more for these onerous signings. I should be receiving $10 per signature for the work involved. Ha, in my dreams! $100 total is the most they are paying for everything that must be done for a complex signing. This is another way that our work has been cheapened to the point of not being worth it. Since no one but no one will listen to reason, I now routinely turn down jobs when I know the pattern of that particular title company to request so many notarized signatures for so little money.

Hello. Please see this statement from the California Secretary of State's office on page 4 of the official 2014 Notary Newsletter (http://notary.cdn.sos.ca.gov/forms/notary-newsletter-2014.pdf) and linked in the article above: "Remember that you may be asked to provide a copy of a line item in your journal, which is why each line item entry must be complete. You cannot use hash marks, ditto marks, arrows, or other shortcuts."

I love the NNA. I will like to see it advocate for a multiple entry journal. In a husband and wife refinance Signing; with almost 10 documents needing notarization, we are required to have 20 line entries. Signers are getting upset in having to sign that many lines. They say and I agree that it is time consuming. NNA should have multiple checkable journal

In CA, does the non-use of dittos or arrows in notary book apply equally to both required columns (e.g. Ack vs. Jurat, date/time, ID) and optional columns (e.g. name/address of signer or address where notarized)?

I'm a California notary and while I respect the Calif Secretary of State's comments, this is not law. The notary's requirements can be quite onerous at a signing, often with more than 7 notarized signature per signer (with decreasing pay thanks to *&^%$#@! Snapdocs!). To answer Len Taylor, I use the Modern Journal of Notarial Events and it comes with check boxes for the common real estate/loan related documents (including indicating whether it's a Ack or Jurat), so even if 10 notarized signatures is needed, only 1 'line' in the journal needs to be completed (in most cases) per signer. If a copy is ever requested (in my 11 years, that has never happened), I would simply provide that one line item, since all the notarized signatures are related to that real estate/loan transaction and it's irrelevant if one sees the full list of documents notarized in that one transaction.

If a husband and wife, known personally, are signing multiple documents (Title & Loan Documents) is a single notary entry in the journal acceptable. Their Arizona licenses are kept on file?

I don't think the almost 5-year-old Statement" from the Secretary of State office is actual law. It is merely a one agency's interpretation, based on an improbable scenario, and is not an actual law. Making a separate journal entry for each individual notarization is impractical, time-consuming, and totally unnecessary, in my opinion. This requirement needs to be revisited and reconsidered as it places an unbearable burden on the notary with no increase in our fees. Title and lender, over the last few years, have been sneaking more and more requirements (scan backs or faxbacks, for instance) and refusing to pay additional fees for additional services! Now they are starting to demand that we take photos of IDs and signed documents and TEXT them back from the signing table! Since this function is one that causes extra charges for my cell phone, I refuse and tell them they have to accept scan backs when I get back to my office (for which I charge for the time involved!). When you total up the number of hours involved in a signing, from receiving and printing the documents, drive times to and from, actual time spent at the signing table, time to scan documents, package them, and drive to the drop site, then deduct actual overhead and expenses plus background checks, notary supplies, etc., then take those that total dollar figure and divide it by the actual fee paid and the final dollar figure, which is what we receive in payment for our work, you will see we are lucky to be getting less than half of the minimum wage. And the fees offered are getting lower and lower. I sat down with a woman who thought being a notary signing agent would be a good way to make some money. I showed her how to figure her business overhead, just like the IRS allows, and showed her how laughable the fees are, and explained how much time she will spend on each order. At the end of all the arithmetic, she saw she would actually receive less than 5 dollars an hour, and nowhere near the state fee for each notarization. She decided she had been sadly misinformed about how she could make a lot of money! To top it off, notaries who have been in the business fir many years are given pages of extra instructions from lender and title alike that are almost insulting! If the signing agent doesn't already practice these most basic things, they should not be hired! Makes me wonder why I keep doing it. It sure isn't for the money or respect! I have always been proud to be a professional in my work. Now I wonder why I bother. The only people who seem truly happy about my work are the borrowers I deal with! Sad.

Hawaii Notary Office does not interpret law for us. I understand "at length" but I fail to see how putting in the description that there were "three originals," etc, of the same document by the same signer, with the same I.D., does not meet the "at length" requirement. More to the at length should be taught to give more information in the document description, rather than only "deed," who is the grantee, and for what property (short description). That is the part that will prevent the loose certificate from being detached and reattached to another document all together.

Some comments about the discussion in this series: for those who question the validity of a "5 year old statement from the Secretary of State," or state that they "respect the SOS's comment," the SOS is the person/office that manages/permits notaries by STATUE, so any such document should be followed strictly. Saying that you don't have to follow them is like saying you don't have to pay attention to instructions from the IRS in their statements - see where that gets you. And unless there is a newer statement to replace it, the statements don't expire. The legal principal of stare decisis (law based on precedent and precedent is good until overturned no matter how old). Anyone doing real estate notarizations can simply point out to the loan people that the State of California authorizes a fee of $15 for EACH signature. Quote Government Code 8211 which specifies the fees. Since you have to record each item (Gov. Code 8206(2)(b)), each separate item is a separate signature and entitled to the $15 fee. In addition, if you are doing work other than what is required by statute, you should be entitled to an hourly compensation for anything other than the notarization. Making copies, etc., etc., is not part of the notarization process.