Module 4

Certificates, deeds and drafting: saying exactly what you did, and advising both sides

A notarial certificate is one of the shortest pieces of legal writing there is, and one of the most consequential. It will be read by a court, a bank, a registry or a foreign official who has never met the notary, and who will rely on every word. A missing part can make it useless, and a claim that goes too far can make the notary liable. A deed is the opposite: long, built carefully, read aloud and explained, with a duty to be fair to everyone who signs it. This module covers both. It shows the parts of a certificate and the three most common kinds, explains the traps of wording, then turns to the drafting and explaining of a deed, the art of advising both sides without taking either, reading the deed aloud and what to do when something is wrong. The Notarial Certificate Checker in the labs lets you test wording. Many countries prescribe the form or text of certificates and deeds, and where they do, you use the prescribed form.

General education on the work of a notary across legal systems, using invented people, offices and cases. It is not legal or career advice. The acts a notary may perform, the form of certificates and deeds, the checks required, the reporting duties, the rules for documents used abroad and the routes into the profession differ between countries and change: check the rules that apply to you with the notarial authority and the profession.