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Written by William Ponsot
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 Just recently, I was startled out of a deep sleep by the ringing of my front doorbell on a early Saturday morning. When I opened the door I was facing two New York City Police Detectives.
After introducing themselves and showing ID they asked to be invited in for a chat. We sat in the Living Room and they proceeded to ask a few general questions about my business, and then said “Do you remember working on July *** ? I replied that I probably had; but I needed to check my Journal to answer with any certainty.
Keep in mind that New York is a state that does not require that a Notary maintain a Journal. When I first became a Notary, I even said why should I bother if it’s not required? Several months later I sat in a NSA training class – I walked out with a Journal. In the instance above, I would NOT have been able to discuss this matter without the information in my Journal.
As Independent Contractors we encounter many expenses which are necessary; and sidestep the optional expenses in favor of maximizing our bottom line.. Since the Journal is ‘optional’ for many of us, a lot of Notaries do not maintain one. BUT FOR LESS THAN TWENTY DOLLARS YOU CAN SAVE YOURSELF, YOUR BUSINESS AND YOUR CLIENTS A LOT OF TROUBLE!
Depending on how busy you are conducting Notary Acts, your small investment is the best record keeping device we have available to us, and will be good for about six months of entries possibly longer.
Keeping a Notary Journal is one of the most important actions you can take as a Notary. It is a level of professionalism and caution that protects you, your employer and your clients. Every Notary should keep a detailed record of notarial acts.
The Journal is one of our legal system's most important evidentiary tools and it protects both consumers and Notaries.
While some signers don't realize that there is a recordkeeping step in the notarization process, others may plot to avoid the journal entry altogether in order to commit a fraud. That's why it's important for you to complete the Journal entry before completing the notarial certificate. In addition, a journal entry allows a Notary to compare three signatures in most cases: the one on the document, the one in the journal, and the one on the identification card
If a signer leaves before you can make a journal entry, then you have no official record of that notarial act in the event the transaction is ever questioned in court. If a signer refuses to affix a signature in the journal or to give you identifying information to record in the Journal, you should decline the notarization. Chances are you just halted a fraudulent act.
Some well-intentioned but misguided Notaries — possibly concerned about security and privacy issues — leave their Journals behind deliberately, with the intention of taking notes at the signing and completing the journal entry later. This defies the purpose of a Journal, since getting a signature (and possibly a thumbprint) in the Journal is the point here.
. To ensure completeness, accuracy and conformance with the law, each journal entry must be made at the time of the notarization. Some Journals (such as the one from UNAA) has a security shield (flap) that covers previous entries so a signer does not view others personal information.
To avoid confusion or misplaced records, it's important to keep your journal entries sequential. Start on the first page, make your entries in chronological order until the journal is complete, and then start another. Don't skip entry spaces or make entries out of order. Also, don't make entries on loose pieces of paper to clip or staple to journal pages. Stapling or clipping additional pages in a journal leaves them vulnerable to being lost or being removed for a fraudulent purpose.
Completeness of information makes your Journal an invaluable resource. Criminal or Civil matters aside for a moment ; the Journal provides YOU with a irrefutable and clear paper trail of your business – though you may not want to record fees in the Journal, you could – but otherwise you should have the date, time, place and the signers names for every assignment. Add to that their ID info and addresses (I usually also have their contact # listed as well); and you have as complete a record as you need to track your business, and respond to any inquiries with accuracy and confidence.
Anyone who views your journal will have access to names, addresses, driver's license numbers and other sensitive information of your previous signers. You should only grant people access to a journal entry after checking with your SOS or an Attorney. Even then they must submit a written and signed request describing the type of document notarized, the approximate date the notarization took place, the name of the signer or signers of the document, and why they are requesting to see the entry. Then you should only show, or make a copy of, the single line item. A person should never be allowed to flip through the pages of a journal or look through it unsupervised.
Additionally, you should never surrender control of the journal to anyone. The only exception to this could be if law enforcement or state officials subpoena the Notary's entire journal as evidence, or if the journal is being turned in to appropriate authorities at the end of the Notary's term of commission.
A well kept Journal has the following information:
• Date of Signing
• Time of Signing
• Name of Signer
• Address of Signer
• ID Info of Signer
• Address of Signing
• Contact Person (One who hired you)
• Contact Phone #
• List of Notarized Documents w/ type of Notarial Act (Ack, Jurat etc)
Order your journal here.
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