Notary Services

Legal documents are considered to be very important in our modern society.  These particular documents differ in range, importance, type and class, but they serve one single purpose: to provide the necessary support or proof an individual holding the document needs for whatever purpose he or she might need it.  That is why an individual must not take for granted any means or processes that will help further strengthen the legality and validity of the document he or she carries.  The notary services provided by various legal counsels and approved authorities are definitely a welcome help to the public in search of ways to make sure that their documents remain valid, legal and genuine.

When might I need Notary Services?

So what is a notary service and where to find a notary service provider?  Technically speaking, notary services are basically an act to notarize a document in a non-contentious matter, or in other words, to make sure that the claim in the legal document is valid or real.  The notarization is undertaken by a legal authority, usually a licensed attorney of law, and in a way “vouches” for the statements and claims in the legal document so that the party requiring the legal document might see that the individual presenting the said document is doing so in legal and valid terms.  Availing of notary services is a very common practice in the world so that the main act of acquiring a valid legal document that can be easily authenticated by a legal authority is made easier to the general public.

There are a lot of different documents that can benefit from notary services, and these include the following:

• Real estate.  This is probably the most common use of the notary.  Authenticating contracts and legal documents that deal with anything concerning estates is one of the most common practices that need legality and validity.  Such documents include tax certificates of the land, tax declarations of the estate, certificate of ownership, land title and other some such documents that deal with anything concerning a land or a property.  Authentication of such documents is of paramount importance to both parties in the dealing, especially if it involves any kind of buying or selling.
• Deeds.  Dees of sale, deed of trust, deed of claim and other such deeds are also legal documents that will benefit from the notary service.  Deeds are mostly legal forms of writing that appoints, passes or affirms any form of property, authority or power from one party to another, usually involving legal matters.
• Powers-of-attorney.  Powers-of-attorney are legal documents in writing that lets an individual choose a representative to handle their personal, financial, health and/or legal matters or businesses if the individual is unavailable for any reason especially if they cannot address the business personally.  It is basically a legal “letter of appointment” or “authorization letter” that will definitely needs to be authenticated by notarization so that any further questions might be voided by any contesting party regarding the authority of the assigned legal “attorney-in-fact” or “agent”
• Affidavits.  Affidavits of loss and affidavits of claim are only some of the legal documents required by certain establishments to be able to avail of their services.  Banks, in particular, are in need of a notarized affidavit of loss to be able to replace an individual’s ATM card if it is lost for any reason
• Foreign and international businesses.  All business transactions go smoothly with the help of written contracts, and all business transactions should be treated as legal matters for all intents and purposes.  Big international deals concerning multi-million dollar companies always make sure that all of their documents are valid and notarized before any transaction proceeds so that their legal representatives can properly review all of the documents before advising their represented clients to push through with any type of deal

Make sure to get the services of a fully qualified Notary Public providing a wide range of notary and legal services

Notary services are indeed very common practices that most countries observe to be able to make sure all of the legal documents remain valid and authentic in nature.  Before getting the services of just any legal authority however, it is important to fully research where to get a notary service that will offer you a wide range of legal and notary services.  It is much advantageous for an individual to combine all of the necessary legal counsel and document handling in one place to minimize the fees and of course to easily monitor the legal situation.  Managing a lot of different legal services can prove to be a nightmare, especially on the financial side, so it might be better for a party to make sure that the legal services they are going to avail will offer not only legal counsel, but also services of notarization.

Notarisation, Legalisation and Apostille services

Most of the time, general legal services are offered by authorities that want to cater individuals for their basic legal needs.  Obtaining a notary public service is probably the most common, closely followed by legalisation and Apostille services.  Unlike notary services - which serves the very important purpose of authenticating documents and affirmation of certain legal deeds as well as other non-contentious matters on a more local scale and therefore might be required more – legalisation and Apostille services are more in demand on other participating countries once you step outside of your country of origin.  One case in particular are the Apostille requirements of the United Kingdom, wherein all the necessary countries participating or that has participated in the Hague conference is required to demand Apostille certificates from individuals presenting British documents.  Such legalisation and Apostille certification procedures are then handled by a governing authority; one office in particular is the FCO – The Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Also, unlike notary services, some documents need to go through a two-step process, first from being notarized by the local government and then required to get an Apostille certification or stamp.  Such documents are detailed below.

Which documents must be certified by a Notary Public before they are legalised?

Listed below are just some documents that are required to be notarized first before proceeding to the legalisation process:

• Copies of legal documents without actual signatures or stamps
• Documents that are issued by private individuals
• School grades from compulsory school
• Certificates of marriage
• Invoices and VAT (Value Added Tax) Certificates