t's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's a Hybrid certificate!
Hybrid notarial certificates are certificates that combine both an Acknowledgement and a Jurat. Most all of the 50 states authorize their notaries to complete those two acts separately. Not all allow those two acts to be combined.
We have only started seeing these types of certificates in the past 4-5 years. Before that, they just didn't exist. I don't know who's bright idea it was to combine them, but it took off like wild fire and has left the notary in a tight spot.
The notary squeeze comes because most of our notary regulations do not specifically address the Hybrid certificate. So how do we know if we are authorized to complete this type of certificate? Some would say that if it's not addressed in our handbooks then it's fair game. I say, that our handbooks are not designed to list EVERYTHING that we can't or should not be doing. If it did, our handbooks/manuals would be the size of the IRS tax code. And really, that is not reasonable as we as humans can come up with some pretty off the wall stuff. But that's just my opinion.
I am based in Arizona and have been faced with this dilemma myself. Can I use this hybrid certificate or not? Ultimately I went directly to the supervisor of our Notary Division at the Secretary of State and posed the question. After a few days, some research and round table discussions internally at the SOS, here's the answer I got;
"...statute that a "Notary must include 'A' Notarial Certificate". This would indicate that all notarizations must contain ONE of three allowable notarial certificates. Therefore, combining certificates in Arizona is not an option, additionally the Notary is to have one journal entry for each notarization. Therefore the journal entry cannot indicate both an ACKNOWLEDGEMENT and JURAT." (10/13/2021)
This subject comes up time and time again. And sometimes going to the horses mouth (SOS) can yield different answers at different times depending on whom you are speaking to. That's why I chose to go the department supervisor and requested the answer in an email so that I could share it with all of you.
The fact that our own state and federal websites that have downloadable forms for various state specific documents that may include a Hybrid certificate in the preprinted notarial certificate is always an arguing point with your signers. It is not easy to explain why it's not state compliant and yet the form came from our own government agency. We assume that they should know notary regulations. But honestly, none of them have a clue. And most attorneys are not schooled in notarial law either. So, you see how well versed we need to be in our own regulations?!