The form most frequently completed by the notary public is the acknowledgment. The acknowledgment form is set forth in Civil Code section 1189. In the acknowledgment, the notary public certifies:
That the signer personally appeared before the notary public on the date indicated in the county indicated.
To the identity of the signer.
That the signer acknowledged executing the document.
Note that it is not necessary for the document to be signed in the presence of the notary, only that the signer personally appear to acknowledge having signed the document.
It is important to note that a notary public should NEVER complete any notarial certificate with a date other than the date the notarization is being performed! Doing so will result in an improper notarization and could have very serious consequences for the notary public and other parties involved.
Next, when taking an acknowledgment or executing a jurat, the notary public must record a statement in her or her journal as to whether the identity of the person making the acknowledgment or taking the oath or affirmation was based on satisfactory evidence. Satisfactory evidence is further defined below.
So, what is satisfactory evidence?
Satisfactory Evidence
Satisfactory evidence means the absence of any information, evidence, or other circumstances which would lead a reasonable person to believe that the person making the acknowledgment is not the individual he or she claims to be and any one of the following:
The oath or affirmation of a credible witness whose identity has been proven, is personally known to the notary, and who personally knows the person requesting the notarization*,
The oath or affirmation under penalty of perjury of two credible witnesses, whose identities are proven to the notary based on satisfactory evidence*,
Reasonable reliance on the presentation of paper documents.
Effective January 1, 2016, any form of inmate identification that is current or has been issued within 5 years by a sheriff’s department, if the inmate is in custody in a local detention facility, has been added as an allowable form of identification for a notary public to prove the identity of a credible witness or an individual who executes a written instrument.
Section 1185 of the Civil Code requires forms of identification as follows:
A notary public may establish the identity of a person appearing before the notary public by using paper documents if there is an absence of any information which would lead a reasonable person to believe that the individual is not the person he or she claims to be and
There is reasonable reliance on any one of the following forms of identification, provided it is current or was issued within 5 years:An identification card or driver’s license issued by the California Department of Motor Vehicles;
A United States passport;
An inmate identification card issued by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, if the inmate is in custody in prison; or
Any form of inmate identification issued by a sheriff’s department, if the inmate is in custody in a local detention facility; or
There is reasonable reliance on any one of the following forms of identification, provided it is current or was issued within 5 years, provided that it also contains a photograph, description of the person, signature of the person, and an identifying number:A valid consular identification document issued by a consulate from the applicant's country of citizenship, or a valid passport from the applicant's country of citizenship;
A driver’s license issued by another state or by a Canadian or Mexican public agency authorized to issue drivers’ licenses;
An identification card issued by another state;
A military identification card (caution: current military identification cards may not have all of the required elements);
An employee identification card issued by an agency or office of the State of California, or by an agency or office of a city, county, or city and county in California;
An identification card issued by a federally recognized tribal government.
* In order to rely upon a credible witness to establish identity, the witness must swear or affirm to each of the following conditions: the person making the acknowledgment is named in the document and known to the witness(es); the witness(es) reasonably believe that the person requesting notarization cannot reasonably provide another form of identification; the person requesting notarization does not possess a DMV license/identification or U.S. Passport or other qualifying identification; and that the witness(es) is/are not named in the document and do not have a financial interest in the document.
If identity was established based on satisfactory evidence, then the journal shall contain the signature of the credible witness swearing or affirming to the identity of the individual or the type of identifying document used to establish the person's identity, the governmental agency issuing the document, the serial or identifying number of the document, and the date of issue or expiration of the document.
If the identity of the person making the acknowledgment or taking the oath or affirmation was established by the oaths or affirmations of two credible witnesses whose identities are proven based on satisfactory evidence, then the journal shall contain the type of identifying documents, the identifying numbers of the documents and the dates of issuance or expiration of the documents presented by the witnesses to establish their identity.
The Acknowledgment Form
The certificate of acknowledgment must be completely filled out at the time the notary public's signature and seal are affixed and, to the notary's knowledge, statements made by the subscriber must be true. The completion of an acknowledgment that contains statements the notary public knows to be false may result in the following:
liability by the notary public for civil penalties up to $10,000,
administrative action against the notary public,
criminal prosecution of the notary public for any or all of the following:a misdemeanor offense, under Government Code section 6203, having a four-year statute of limitations,
forgery, as described by Penal Code section 470(d), provided the notary public's intent is to defraud, and
perjury, as prescribed by Section 1189(a)(3) of the Civil Code, which sets forth the form of the California acknowledgment, which contains this statement:
I certify under PENALTY OF PERJURY under the laws of the State of California that the foregoing paragraph is true and correct.
Any certificate of acknowledgment taken within the state of California for filing within the state must be in exactly the following form (Civil Code section 1189(a)):
Effective January 1, 2015, the following disclaimer must appear in a box at the top of the certificate, and the disclaimer must be legible: "A notary public or other officer completing this certificate verifies only the identity of the individual who signed the document to which this certificate is attached, and not the truthfulness, accuracy, or validity of that document."
If the acknowledgment is being taken in California and is for use in California, but the notarial wording provided to the notary public differs from the form described above, the notary public must attach or affix a certificate of acknowledgment containing the statutory wording to the document being notarized. For this purpose, many vendors offer pre-printed loose-leaf acknowledgment certificates, certificates in PDF format on CD-ROM that may be printed as needed, rubber stamps containing the statutory acknowledgment wording, and more. Check with your Notary Public 101 Authorized Reseller if you have not already obtained provisional acknowledgment certificates.
If a California notary public is presented with an acknowledgment form that is recognized by another state or jurisdiction of the United States, and is to be filed in that other state or jurisdiction, he or she may take the acknowledgment provided the form does not require the notary public to determine or certify that the signer holds a particular representative capacity or to make other determinations and certifications not allowed by California law.
One example would be the notarization of loan documents prepared in Iowa on behalf of an individual who is visiting California, but must have the documents notarized on the closing date of his or her loan. In cases such as these, out of state acknowledgment certificates may be used and it is generally a matter of simply correcting the venue when completing the certificate. Acknowledgment certificates are substantially the same from state-to-state and are seldom in violation of California law when used in support of a document that will be filed out-of-state.
NOTE: Key wording of an acknowledgment is "personally appeared." It is not acceptable to affix an acknowledgment to a document mailed or otherwise delivered to a notary public whereby the signer did NOT personally appear before the notary public, even if the signer is known by the notary public. Also, it is not acceptable to affix a notary public seal and signature to a document without the notarial wording.