Two of the most common notarial acts our notaries are asked at the We the People Woodland Hills office are Acknowledgments and Jurat. A notary acknowledgement ensures that the signer of the document is indeed the person named in the document. The function of the notary in this case is to verify the identity of the signer.
On the other hand, a notary is asked to perform a Jurat, when the signer takes an oath or makes an affirmation. The function of the notary in this case is to administer of oath or affirmation.
Notary acknowledgement is mostly used on real estate transfers, powers of attorneys, and in general in all documents such as a contract, where the goal is to verify that a certain person indeed signed the document. Interestingly, the signer of a notary acknowledgement is not required to sign in the presence of the notary, as long as he/she appears in front of a notary. A common misconception is that the signer needs to wait until in front of a notary before executing the document. That’s not necessary – only the personal appearance is.
Jurat is used for affidavits (such as affidavit of death) or to swear that certain facts are true. The signer needs to appear in front of the notary to take the oath.
The difference is even clearer when the two languages are compared. Here is part of the language of a notary acknowledgement: On ________, before me, NAME OF NOTARY, appeared NAME OF SIGNER, who proved to me on the basis of satisfactory evidence to be the person whose name is subscribed to the within instrument… Here is the language of a Jurat: Subscribed and sworn to me on this DATE, by NAME OF SIGNER…
Every The Document People/We the People location has at least one notary on staff at all times. We offer notary services at We the People Woodland Hills, notary services at We the People Santa Monica, We the People Glendale and The Document People Torrance, San Fernando, Anaheim and Oceanside.
The information contained in this blog – including information of a legal nature – is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be construed as legal advice on any subject matter.