What is a Notary Public?

A Notary Public is a neutral and impartial witness to the execution of many of todays' legal documents. A Notary Public verifies the identity of a signer of a document and attest to their signatures. By doing this with a certain procedure defined by law they help deter fraud and prevent coercion.

PA Notaries and Education

There just a few basic requirements to become a Notary Public in PA.

  • You must be 18 years of age.
  • You must live or work within the commowealths borders.
  • You must attend a three (3) hour educational course approved by the Department of State.
  • You must submit the approved application for processing.

Pennsylvania's Department of State, Notary Division is the governing body for all Pennsylvania Notaries Public. They alone process and approve all applications for Notaries in Pennsylvania. They enforce all laws governing notaries and they maintain the educational requirements according to state law.

PA Approved Educators

The mandatory education course must be from an approved provider. Any entity wishing to become an approved provider must submit their courses for approval to the Notary Division. These courses must contain the pertinent information required by the State Department and the notary law. Therefore all approved providers and their courses contain the same information regardless of presenter, organization or provider. Our courses have been approved by the State Department Notary Division to provide the mandatory education for new and renewing applicants. This course includes instruction in understanding the law, our functions and general knowledge of being a Notary Public. We offer the opportunity to obtain this education in many ways, from online courses to live seminars.

Basic Facts about Notarization and Notaries

  • A Notary Public can not help you in the drafting of a document or suggest wording.
  • All documents must have the proper wording and be setup for notarization.
  • Any document to be notarized must be complete and be free of blank spaces.
  • The signer of the document must be present with proper ID at the time of notarization.
  • Notarization of a document DOES NOT make it a legal document.

Acts a Notary Public can perform.

  • Affidavit-The wording of the document will read "Sworn and Subscribed before me" or to that effect. This states the signer is attesting to the truthfulness of the facts in the document by their signature. The notary is attesting that they witnessed your signature and you were properly identity.
  • Acknowledgement-The wording will be similar to "On this date before me appeared" etc.. This wording states that they personally appeared before the notary and identified themselves according to PA law. The notary is then vouching for your personal appearance and identity.
  • Certification-This act is to certify copies of documents. I.E. school degrees, certificates of education, vocational licensure etc. To achieve this properly you must provide the ORIGINAL document to the Notary Public. They will then make the copy and attest to it being a true and correct copy of the original document.

Notary Public Courses

If you are interested in becoming a Notary Public please read more here.
Our courses are offered in live seminars here. And online here.