Notarial Acts and Procedures Flashcards
6 cards from real AZ NOTARY practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 6 Notarial Acts and Procedures flashcards as text
An individual presents a document for notarization and asks you to perform a jurat. The signer must perform which of the following actions in your presence?
Answer: Sign the document and swear or affirm to the truthfulness of its contents.
A jurat requires the signer to sign the document in the notary's presence and to take an oath or affirmation that the statements in the document are true. An acknowledgment only requires the signer to appear and acknowledge their signature, which could have been made previously.
A notary is asked to notarize a document for a signer who does not have an acceptable form of identification. However, the signer's coworker is present and is personally known to the notary. What is the correct procedure?
Answer: Use the coworker as a credible witness, placing them under oath to verify the signer's identity.
Arizona law allows for the use of a credible witness to identify a signer who lacks other forms of satisfactory evidence of identity. If the notary personally knows the credible witness, that witness must be placed under oath or affirmation to swear to the identity of the signer.
Which of the following is a prohibited act for an Arizona notary public?
Answer: Notarizing a document in which the notary's spouse is a party and has a direct beneficial interest.
According to Arizona Revised Statutes § 41-252(B), a notarial officer may not perform a notarial act with respect to a record to which the officer or the officer's spouse is a party or in which either of them has a direct beneficial interest. This is to ensure the notary remains an impartial witness.
A client brings you a document titled "Affidavit of Support" that contains several blank spaces within the text. The client signs the document in front of you and asks you to perform a jurat. What should you do?
Answer: Refuse to perform the jurat until all blank spaces are filled in by the signer.
An Arizona notary is prohibited from performing a jurat on a document that is incomplete or contains blanks. This is because the signer is swearing to the truthfulness of the entire document's contents, and blanks could be filled in later, potentially fraudulently.
An Arizona notary may perform all of the following notarial acts EXCEPT:
Answer: Certifying a copy of a birth certificate
Arizona notaries are authorized to perform acknowledgments, jurats, copy certifications, and oaths or affirmations. However, they cannot perform a copy certification on a public record, such as a birth certificate, which must be obtained from the official issuing agency.
When performing an acknowledgment, the primary purpose is for the notary to certify that the signer:
Answer: Is the person they claim to be and willingly signed the document for its stated purpose.
The core function of an acknowledgment is for the notary to verify the identity of the signer and to certify that the signer appeared before them and acknowledged that they signed the record willingly for the purposes stated within it. Unlike a jurat, the document does not have to be signed in the notary's presence, and no oath is administered regarding the document's contents.