Can a notary public notarize a document for a spouse?

Answer 1

What the previous person was trying to say, but was unable to for some unknown reason, is:

No, as a notary public, you may not notarize a document for your spouse. You are also prohibited from notarizing your own documents, documents of friends and relatives (including extended family members), and any document in which you have an interest, pecuniary (meaning there is some form of monetary gain or benefit) or otherwise. For example, if a complete stranger asks you to notarize his will, and he has named you his sole beneficiary to his entire estate, you cannot notarize the document for him. Any document that you are prohibited from notarizing, that you choose to notarize, anyway, will be considered null and void and will need to re-drafted and notarized by a notary public with no interest in the document and/or relationship to the document's owner. If you notarize too many prohibited documents that are later declared null because you were prohibited from notarizing them in the first place, you can lose your commission as a notary public and possibly be banned from being commissioned in the future.

In most states, you can notarize a document for a friend who is a colleague if:

a) The individual is your employee, boss, or a co-employee;

b) Notarizing the document is a part of your job-related duties; and

c) Again, you have no personal interest in the document.

Your state and county laws may vary, but all states prohibit public notaries from notarizing their own signatures and that of their spouse's. Your state and county's specific permissions and restrictions should have been detailed on your initial notary application, and should be available by request from the office by whom you were notarized.

These restrictions do not typically apply to civil notaries (including attorneys in the US) with the exception of not being allowed to notarize their own sworn affidavits and similar instruments, even when such documents are needed for a matter they are handling for a client - for example, last month, I was required to submit a sworn statement certifying that the petitioner in a matter had made a statement, which I was not permitted to notarize myself. My secretary, who is a close friend of mine, was permitted to notarize the document for me, as it is one of her job duties to do so. I was, however, permitted to notarize a document for my husband. Again, your state laws regarding civil notaries may vary.

New York, like most states, considers notarization of a document in which the notary has an interest to be a nullity. The law states: "Though a person may be eligible to hold the office of notary the person may be disqualified to act in certain cases by reason of having an interest in the case. To state the rule broadly: if the notary is a party to or directly and pecuniarily interested in the transaction, the person is not capable of acting in that case. For example, a notary who is a grantee or mortgagee in a conveyance or mortgage is disqualified to take the acknowledgment of the grantor or mortgagor; likewise a notary who is a trustee in a deed of trust; and, of course, a notary who is the grantor could not take his own acknowledgment. A notary beneficially interested in the conveyance by way of being secured thereby is not competent to take the acknowledgment of the instrument. In New York the courts have held an acknowledgment taken by a person financially or beneficially interested in a party to conveyance or instrument of which it is a part to be a nullity; and that the acknowledgment of an assignment of a mortgage before one of the assignees is a nullity; and that an acknowledgment by one of the incorporators of the other incorporators who signed a certificate was of no legal effect.