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). Florida law does not require the use of a notary journal; however, you may be interested to know that the Governor’s Task Force on Notaries Public in 1989 recommended the mandatory use of journals. Although the Legislature did not follow that recommendation, many notaries in Florida are beginning to voluntarily use a journal. 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:

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. Even though journals are not required, 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.