Mistake 1: Notarizing Without the Signer Present
This is the most fundamental rule in all of notary law: the signer must be physically present before you at the time of notarization, without exception. Notarizing a document that was pre-signed, or notarizing based on a phone description of a signature, is a serious violation in every state. It exposes you to civil liability, potential criminal charges, and immediate permanent commission revocation.
Mistake 2: Failing to Verify Identity Properly
Accepting expired identification documents, IDs that do not precisely match the name in the document being notarized, or insufficient identification that does not meet your state’s requirements is a common and potentially costly error. Know your state’s specific acceptable identification list thoroughly. When in any doubt about the adequacy of identification provided, decline the notarization rather than risk authenticating a potentially fraudulent document.
Mistake 3: Notarizing Documents With Blank Spaces
Never complete a notarization on a document that contains blank spaces within the primary content sections — those blanks can be filled in after notarization, potentially changing the document’s legal meaning and intent entirely. Always request that any blank spaces be filled in or clearly struck through before you proceed with the notarization.
Mistake 4: Incomplete Notary Journal Entries
Your notary journal is your primary legal protection if a notarization is ever disputed or challenged. Missing entries, incomplete information about the signer or the document, or failure to record the type of identification used can seriously undermine your legal defence in a liability claim. Complete every journal entry fully, legibly, and at the actual time of the notarization.
Mistake 5: Notarizing for Family Members Without Disclosure Awareness
Many states restrict or prohibit notarizing documents in which you have a direct financial or personal interest, or documents for immediate family members, depending on the specific state’s conflict-of-interest rules. Know your specific state’s rules on this before agreeing to notarize for a family member, spouse, or business partner — what feels like a harmless favour can be a genuine violation depending on your jurisdiction.
Mistake 6: Improper Use of Your Notary Seal
Allowing anyone else to use your notary stamp, applying your seal to a document you did not personally witness being signed, or using an expired or non-compliant seal are all serious violations. Your seal is your personal legal instrument and should never leave your direct physical control or be used by an assistant, family member, or colleague under any circumstances, regardless of how minor the request might seem.
How to Protect Yourself If You Realise You Made an Error
If you discover you have made an error after the fact, document what happened factually and completely in your notary journal, notify your E&O insurance carrier proactively rather than waiting for a claim to be filed against you, and consult with a notary-specific attorney or the NNA hotline for state-specific guidance on remediation options. Proactive, honest handling of a genuine mistake is treated far more favourably by regulators and courts than an attempt to conceal or minimise it after the fact.
Where to Get Help If You Are Uncertain About a Situation
If you encounter a genuinely ambiguous situation during an appointment — uncertain identification, a borderline capacity concern, an unusual document type — it is always acceptable and often wise to pause and call your state’s notary division, the NNA hotline, or a knowledgeable colleague before proceeding. Declining or delaying a notarization to get clarity is far preferable to completing one that later proves to have been improper.
Learning From Other Notaries’ Documented Mistakes
State notary boards and the NNA periodically publish anonymised case studies of actual notary violations and their consequences. Reviewing these real examples, rather than only abstract rules, helps build genuine intuition for the specific situations that most commonly lead to serious errors — concrete examples tend to stick in memory far better than a simple list of dos and don’ts.
Building a Culture of Careful Practice From Your Very First Appointment
The habits and standards you establish in your very first weeks as a notary tend to persist throughout your entire career, for better or worse. Notaries who treat careful identification verification, thorough journal-keeping, and strict adherence to proper procedure as non-negotiable from day one rarely develop the kind of casual shortcuts that eventually lead to serious violations. Conversely, small early compromises — skipping a journal entry because an appointment felt routine, accepting borderline identification because a client seemed trustworthy — can gradually normalise into habits that eventually cause a genuinely serious problem.
Treat every single notarization with the same careful rigor regardless of how routine or low-stakes it may seem, since the discipline of consistent, careful practice is precisely what protects you across the thousands of appointments you may perform over a full career.
The Bottom Line
The notaries who avoid serious violations are the ones who treat careful procedure as non-negotiable from their very first appointment onward, not just once volume or stakes increase.