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Open Thread: Help a Buddy Out with Notary No-Nos

By Lynne DeVenny

A couple of days ago I blogged about "How to Abuse a Notary Commission," based on shocking allegations of notary stamp abuse in a foreclosure mill case that has made national news.

A reader left the following question at the post:

As a notary, I sometimes find myself in a bit of a sticky situation. I have a boss, an attorney and a notary himself, who sometimes demands that I notarize documents that are blank except for the client's signature, and even to make changes to documents that I've previously notarized. I would be interested in a post on how to deal with this issue.

Oh man, I hate to hear about notaries caught in these situations. The notary no-nos are patently obvious, but more important, what do you do if you're the poor legal staffer stuck in this situation? I hear frequent complaints from legal staffers who are asked to perform, er, at best, irregular notarizations all the time by supervising attorneys.

As a notary, you took an oath to abide by the laws governing your commission, but as an employee, you're trying to keep a roof over your head and buy groceries - at least until you can find another job where no one will ask you to commit notary stamp abuse.

I thought I would put this issue to my wonderful and experienced readers. How do you recommend that Anonymous deal with this thorny but not uncommon notary issue?

Full post as published by Practical Paralegalism on December 01, 2010 (boomark / email).