Notary Public
A notary public is a public servant performing a public duty.
Notary Public Services
- A notary public is empowered to: administer oaths and affirmations; perform acknowledgments and jurats and witness signatures; issue subpoenas; protest commercial papers; and be present at the removal of the contents of bank safe deposit boxes.
- A notary public may witness documents for use in Massachusetts and in other states. However, a notary public may only witness documents so long as he or she is physically present in Massachusetts at the time of the notarization.
- Notaries public cannot decline to notarize a document solely because a person is not conducting business at the notary public’s employer. For example, if the notary public works in a bank, the notary public cannot decline to notarize a document because a person is not a client of that bank.
- In no case may a notary public charge more than the statutory amount for performing a notarization.
- The notary public must ask for and receive satisfactory evidence of identity (e.g. driver’s license, passport)
– Information provided by the Mass.Gov website