James, it's the just the same PDF file you can download from the website. I just open it on my phone since it can read PDF files. My Blackberry had a PDF reader, but I recently switched to Android, and it reads them without any special apps.
I do want to clarify that I NEVER tell people outright that CWs are a good idea from the start... it's a last resort. UPS dude offered it straight away without asking him about other options.
I do think that that those of you who blanket refuse to use family members as CWs are doing so in error... though I *DO* fully understand why you feel that way. I just know that the handbook gives the requirements, and absent any information that disqualifies them... then a family member can be used.
Of course people who have ID and don't want to update it are lazy.... but again, "very difficult or impossible" is subjective and CA law is not asking the notary to make that determination... the law tells us that it is the CW who swears to the fact. That's my point here. The only place we find "very difficult or impossible" is in relation to what the CW is telling you under oath...
"The credible witness reasonably believes that the circumstances of the signer are such that it would be very difficult or impossible for the signer to obtain another form of identification."
It doesn't matter what the NOTARY believes... it's what the credible witness believes and is willing to swear to. There's a big difference there.
If it were left up to ME, as a notary.... then it would be a different conversation and my position would be more similar to many of you. But, I'm going by what it says in the handbook.
I know that if I were denied the ability to be a CW for a family member who needed it, solely because I was a family member and I had no financial interest in a document.... then I'd be on the phone to the SoS in a heartbeat filing a complaint. |
