As a Notary Public we are all human and can make a mistake on a notarial certificate. Anything from forgetting to place our signature or stamp on the certificate, to dating it incorrectly, or just a spelling error. But just because we say, 'that's human error', we shouldn't be minimizing this because notarial certificate errors can have serious consequences. It is always best to avoid them in the first place. Most of the time we catch those before we finish with our duties. To mitigate the risk of an error, it is important to review all your certificates BEFORE they are signed to make sure they are minimally compliant with your state regulations and then make sure all information is complete and accurate. Sometimes, we get that dreaded call from the title company or Signing Service that lets us know that we need to provide a corrected certificate because of an error. Surprisingly, sometimes it will have been many months before we find out that our certificate has an error. That can happen for a variety of reasons that my crystal ball has a very narrow and limited vison, so we won't go into those reasons here. Depending upon the severity of the error, the steps to correct it will depend on the type of document, the amount of time that has passed, the receiving parties requirements as well as the laws and regulations of the jurisdiction where the notarization was performed. Each state has their own set of guidelines on what procedure the Notary is to follow to make those types of corrections. But, what if that error occurs on a high-powered or formidable document like a Power of Attorney? Or a recordable document like a Deed of Trust or Mortgage? The key to correcting these errors might be subject to how much time has passed since the signing occurred. Or if the document has already been recorded before the error was discovered. Often times, it involves more than just having the notary provide a loose certificate as a replacement for the flawed certificate. Sometimes these errors fall into a category known as Scriveners' Errors. A "Scrivener's Error" - also called a clerical error, is a mistake made on a legal document or contract. It can include misspelled words, incorrect dates, incorrect dollar amounts or numbers, the omission (or inclusion) of words, statements, or phrases. Errors on legal documents (Scrivener's Error) may render the document invalid and may require legal intervention to correct. Sometimes if the error is in the document itself, (lets use a Deed as an example) then maybe only a Corrective Deed can be filed and recorded to clarify something in the prior Deed. That corrective Deed must also contain a Scriveners Affidavit made the by preparer of the document giving a description of the omission or error and the corrected information. The same would be true for the notarial certificate. Something is wrong with the certificate and some time has passed since it was completed. Adding a corrected loose certificate to the already employed document may not be an option. The only other recourse is to use a Scrivener's Affidavit. The Affidavit is a statement (on paper) made by the original notary and must contain; 1) the date of the original document/notarization 2) the names of all persons who signed the original document 3)Name of the Document 4) A description of the omission or error and 5) the corrected information. Of course this statement needs to be signed in the presence of another Notary who then will administer an Oath to this signer and complete a Jurat/Verification Upon Oath. I have been a Notary and Loan Signing Agent for 22-years. I have been called only twice to assist with a Scriveners Affidavit in my career. Not so funny was how embarrassed the Notaries were when faced with meeting with a fellow notary and owning up to their errors. At the same time they both were grateful that it didn't escalate into a full scale lawsuit against them. One particularly touched my heart as her error was made early in her career as a Notary. Perhaps when she wasn't quite as confident in her education and skills. Her error was made 8-years before this on a Healthcare Power of Attorney for a gentleman who had recently been diagnosed with dementia. Now, in order for his Agent to use this, the certificate had to be corrected. The certificate had pretty standard verbiage and said "Acknowledged before me on this __day of _____,2008 by ______________________..." That long blank line should have contained the name of the signer. This is our "By line" we talk about so much in our live classes. Instead, she put her own name on that line and the certificate did not contain the name of the person that came before her and signed the document. This is a requirement in nearly every certificate that we complete as Notaries Public. She was a new notary at the time and just didn't know what she knows now. It could have cost her more than her commission all those years later. Education is important starting out in this career. Continuing education is also important as you make your way through all the regulation changes. Education can open the eyes of a new notary and remind a seasoned notary to keep their eyes open.
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