Keeping Records of Your Notarial Acts: The Notary Journal Notaries are not authorized to keep copies of the documents they notarize. The best way to protect yourself is to document your notarial acts in a journal (record book or log). You may want to consider this option as well. Each time you perform a notarial act you should record the event your journal. Numerous notary journals are available on the market today, and they all have similar features. We recommend that your journal be bound (not loose-leaf) and have consecutively numbered pages, so that a page could not be removed without being detected. Important information should be recorded in the journal including: • the date of the notarial act; • the type of notarial act: oath, acknowledgement, attested photocopy, marriage; • the name or brief description of the document; • the party’s printed name, exactly as he or she signed the document; • the party’s address; • the party’s signature; • the type of identification relied upon in identifying the party, including the serial number, expiration date, date of birth, etc.; • the fee charged for the notary service; and • any additional comments you consider important; for example, the person is blind and you read the document to him. When using a journal to record your notarizations, it is a good idea to complete the journal entry prior to the notarization to ensure that the party does not leave before the necessary information is recorded. Other important considerations: • Journals can be used to refresh your memory about an event that occurred years earlier, and if kept consistently, may be relied upon for court testimony. • Journals may also prove your compliance with the law. • To be reliable, make sure that you record every notarial act and any special circumstances of the notarization. • Do not share a journal with another notary. • Guard your journal. Keep completed journals for at least 5 years. Notary journals are usually available from your bonding agency, an office supply store, or one of the two national organizations that provide educational assistance to notaries. Any notary who is concerned with liability may want to consider this protective measure to provide a permanent record of his or her notarial acts. To order a Notary Journal, please click on the following here.