What a notary public and its clients has to know to complete a notarial act properly is briefly described on the website of Ohio Secretary of State located at https://www.ohiosos.gov/notary/information/. For your information I have attached the excerpt from their site.
Personal Appearance
The signer must appear before you during the notarial act. This must occur in person for a traditional notarial act or an electronic notarial act, but personal appearance can occur through a real-time audio and video conferencing system if the notary public is authorized to perform online notarizations.
Verify the Document
The document should be reviewed to ensure the notarial certificate language appears and no blanks appear or other issues that would result in an improper notarization.
Identify the Signer and the Signer’s Willingness/Awareness to Sign
Ohio Revised Code Section 147.53 requires the notary public to have satisfactory evidence as to the signer’s identity, which means personal knowledge or other evidence of the signer’s identity. A notary public has personal knowledge of the identity of the signer if the signer is personally known to the notary public through dealings sufficient to provide reasonable certainty that the signer has the identity claimed. A notary public may have satisfactory evidence of the signer’s identity by viewing a passport, driver’s license or other government issued photo identification card. Although, a notary public may consider other forms of identification or verification on oath or affirmation of a credible witness personally appearing before the notary public and known to the notary public or whom the notary public can identify by viewing a passport, driver’s license or other government issued photo identification card. A notary public should only proceed with the notarial act upon receipt of satisfactory evidence of the signer’s identity.
Further, the notary public must verify that the signer is understands the document and is aware of the consequences of executing the document by signing it. This requires the notary to be able to communicate directly with the signer in a common language.
Complete the Notarial Act and Notarial Certificate
The notary may then perform the notarial act. In most cases, the document will contain a notarial certificate to indicate if the act required is an acknowledgment or a jurat. If the document does not contain a notarial certificate, then the signer must state which act is requested and the notary public must include the proper notarial certificate.
An acknowledgment is an act requiring the signer to acknowledge his or her signature on a document and the notary public notarizes the signature. It is not required that the signature be witnessed by the notary, the act occurs when the signer acknowledges the signature on the document.
This is an example of the notarial certificate for an acknowledgment:
A jurat is an act requiring the signer to give an oath or affirmation that the statement in the notarized document is true and correct and the signer must sign the notarized document in the presence of a notary public. A jurat is required on documents such as an affidavit and motor vehicle title.
This is an example of the notarial certificate for a jurat:
The notarial certificate requires the following:
- Wording of acknowledgment or jurat;
- The signature of the notary public;
- The typed/printed/stamped name of the notary public;
- The date of the notarial act;
- The venue where the notarization occurred (county/state);
- Notary commission’s expiration date, if applicable; and
- The notarial seal. The notarial seal must include the coat of arms of Ohio, which is ¾ inch up to 1 inch in diameter, the words “Notary Public” and “State of Ohio” or similar words.
Fee
A notary public may charge a fee of $5.00 per act for any notarial act that is not an online notarization. The fee can be up to $25 for an online notarization. Note: fees may not be charged per signature, but instead per notarial act. The law permits a reasonable travel fee as agreed upon by the notary public and the signer prior to the act. No additional fees may be charged in connection to the notarization.
The above information was obtained from the source on the website of the Ohio Secretary of State.