Posted by IL/notary on 2/28/09 9:14am
Msg #279056

Notary is a convicted felon

We have a Notary in our office who is a known convicted felon. Her conviction came after her obtaining her commission. My employer is now concerned about several business documents she's notarized for him in the past few months after learning the possibility of her commission being revoked due to her conviction.

Illinois law says it "may be revoked" upon a felony conviction. IF her commission was indeed revoked and she did not disclose this to our employer, does anyone know how this might affect the documents she notarized for the business?

TIA

Reply by Sylvia_FL on 2/28/09 9:24am
Msg #279058

Why doesn't your employer just check with the SOS to see if her commission has been revoked and when.
If her commission had been revoked before the notarizations then the notarizations wouldn't be valid.
If I was your employer I wouldn't be concerned until I checked the status of the notary.

Reply by Brenda Newkirk on 2/28/09 10:31am
Msg #279068

We do plan to contact our SOS 1st thing Monday. Just needed to know how it might affect the documents she notarized in recent months in the event she was indeed revoked by SOS.

Thank you Sylvia!

Reply by Gary_CA on 2/28/09 12:04pm
Msg #279079

Remember, a Notary is an Officer of the State

and in IL it's not particularly unusual for an officer of the state to be a felon.

I'm sorry, just couldn't pass that up.

But seriously, I'm no lawyer, didn't stay at Holiday Inn Express, you'll get your answer for the SOS... but there's no way revoking a commission can invalidate a previous notarization, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

Part of the purpose of an ACK is to make a permanent public record of the signing. We couldn't operate in a world where that ACK was valid the day it was performed but the invalid later on when we needed to rely on it.

They're gonna tell you her stamp is good till X date and not afterward... and she will know that date before it occurs.

Reply by Sylvia_FL on 2/28/09 12:18pm
Msg #279081

Re: Remember, a Notary is an Officer of the State

"there's no way revoking a commission can invalidate a previous notarization, I wouldn't worry too much about it."

I think the question was if the notary had her commission revoked and didn't inform her employer and then notarized a signers signature.

I may have misunderstood.

Reply by Gary_CA on 2/28/09 1:06pm
Msg #279083

Oops, you're right...

I got that on a second reading... yeah, that could be trouble.

But the whole Illinois state officer/felon tradition may yet save them ;-)

Reply by MikeC/NY on 2/28/09 2:24pm
Msg #279086

"IF her commission was indeed revoked and she did not disclose this to our employer, does anyone know how this might affect the documents she notarized for the business? "

If her commission was revoked prior to her notarizing the documents, then she wasn't a notary at that time and the notarizations would probably be invalid. I say "probably" because every state law is different and laws don't necessarily make sense...

Since IL law says the commission "may be revoked" on conviction, your employer needs to first determine if and when her commission was revoked. Some states may not become aware of the conviction until the commission comes up for renewal, if at all.

Reply by Todd/OH on 3/1/09 7:51pm
Msg #279157

Those documents are effectively "un-notarized" - if that's a term. Let's go for Round 2.