May A Notary Prepare And Distribute Legal Documents?

This is not correct in my state, Louisiana. Notaries may give notarial advice, but not legal advice and I will leave it to the reader to divine the difference. As Civil Law notaries, we are responsible for the content of the documents we notarize and are not merely witness to a signature. We confect legal documents in accordance with the state Civil Code and revised Statutes. Therefore, we pass blessing on any documents drawn up by third parties for us to notarize. As far as distributing legal documents, that seems vague. That could mean recording the document in the courthouse or handing a document properly notarized back to a client. We have an obligation in my state to record certain transactions in a state recorder's office within a certain timeframe. So, if this contitutes "distribution" then this is a duty. With regard to distributing a durable power of attorney this would be allowable in my state because the notary may record such a document for a client. In my state, Health Care Directives are not required to be notarized so I generally inform the person of this and leave it at that.