Why are you seeing a Notary?
In many countries, legal documents must be signed before a notary public before they acquire legal status. A notary verifies the identity, capacity and will of the person signing a document and may verify or certify its contents. Such legal documents include contracts, conveyances, powers of attorney, wills and corporate documents. The notary issues a notarial certificate which is attached to the document or written onto the document itself, signed by the notary and impressed with the notary’s seal.
Notaries also prepare legal documents and have special jurisdiction in relation to protests noted by the masters of ships and the protest of bills of exchange. Notaries are also authorised to administer the swearing of oaths and statutory declarations.
Seeing a Notary
To arrange for your document to be notarised you will need to:
- make an appointment
- if possible, email the documents(s) in advance for the Notary to review and please tell us the nature of your document, where it is going to be used, your deadline if you have one
- identify yourself (generally a current valid passport or photo driving licence and a bank statement or utility invoice less than 3 months old to confirm your home address)
- identify any company or other organisation or person on whose behalf you may be signing the document. You must produce authority from that company or other person, for example a board resolution or power of attorney
- confirm your capacity to sign. If you are a company director a company search will be carried out to verify this
- show that you understand the content and effect of the document to be notarised
- sign the document in the presence of the notary and sometimes before a further witness
Company Documents
Where an individual is signing a document on behalf of a company, limited liability partnership or other entity, the notarial attestation will require evidence of the authority given to that individual.
Birth, marriage and death certificates
Please note that it is not possible to notarise a photocopy of these certificates. A certified copy from the Civil Status & Registration Office can however be notarised and legalised.
Degree certificates
There are restrictions on legalising degree and other educational certificates and we may require the issuing body to verify the authenticity of the document.
Types of work
Individual clients (which may include directors and other company officers):
- Preparing and witnessing powers of attorney (for all matters including the purchase or sale of overseas property)
- Preparing public form notarial acts for use in civil law countries
- Witnessing signatures on documents for use abroad including for the purchase or sale of property
- Confirming the authenticity and validity of deeds and documents
- Taking and administering oaths, sworn statements, affidavits, declarations, statutory declarations and depositions
- Authentication of passports, birth, adoption, death, civil partnership and marriage certificates
- Authentication of degree certificates and professional qualifications (e.g. for Doctors, Nurses, Dentists and Teachers moving abroad)
- Documents to deal with the administration of estates and inheritances for heirs who are overseas
- Declarations of lost passports, birth certificates and credit cards
- Obtaining official copy marriage, birth and death certificates, copy divorce decrees
- Change of name by deed poll and declarations
- Authenticating personal documents and information for immigration or emigration
- Authenticating and recording events for a range of other circumstances
Corporate clients:
- Drafting powers of attorney, minutes and resolutions (for litigation, setting up branches overseas and dealing with commercial transactions)
- Issuing notarial certificates verifying the execution of commercial contracts, agreements and deeds (including powers of attorney) by a company
- Authenticating company and business documents for commercial transactions
- Authenticating company documents (such as certificates of incorporation, memorandum and articles of association and financial statements)
- Authenticating trademark assignments
- Witness directors and secretary signatures on resolutions, board minutes, company profiles and other company documents
- Obtaining documents from Companies House such as Certificates of Good Standing
- Authenticating identity documents for directors, secretaries and other company officers
- Drawing up ship protests in maritime matters and dealing with the due execution of ship mortgages
- Corporate Acknowledgements for use in the United States of America
- Declarations and certificates relating to intellectual property rights such as copyright infringement
If your document is not on the list, do not worry as we have in all likelihood dealt with it before or will be able to deal with it.
If you require documents such as powers of attorney, affidavits or declarations, it helps (and it is usually cheaper) if you have a draft provided to you by your lawyer or notary from the foreign jurisdiction it is intended for. If you don’t have this, we can draft it to your specifications but it would need to be reviewed and approved by a lawyer in the destination country to ensure that document is in an acceptable format.
