What Is A Notary Public? – In England, The Court of Faculties – the profession’s own court – appoints Notary Publics.
Once appointed, a Notary Public has the ability to prove the authenticity of documents to the satisfaction of overseas officials.
In contrast to solicitors, whose first duty is to their clients, notaries must ensure that their notarial act may be relied upon by anyone in the world who may receive the document.
Notary Publics are in effect specialist lawyers whose main business is to verify the proper execution of English documentation going abroad and, where necessary, to issue an appropriate certificate.
Notaries will then sign that certificate or in some cases the original document itself and attach their Notarial Seal of Office which is unique to them.
The duty of a Notary Public extends not only to the client signing a document but also to those people, institutions or foreign governments who are relying on these documents. This means that that the Notary Public must observe a high standard of care, and the sealing of any document is not a “rubber stamping exercise”. The Notary will, therefore, verify the information given by the client where possible and issue an appropriate certificate to this effect.
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