Posted by TinaCA on 3/16/11 6:15pm
Msg #376405

Proctor

I was contacted by a friend of a friend to ask if I could proctor a test as a notary. (There is a notary seal on the test). I told her I could do it after I spoke with another notary, who told me thats fine and charge her xx. A couple days before the appt, I called NNA Hotline and asked them if I should attach an acknowledgement to the test. He told me that was not a notorial act and I could lose my commission as a Notary. I called the Co and explained that to them and they told me alot of other Notories do this, quite snotty. I told her I didnt want to lose my notary commission. Has this happened to anyone else? I was going to receive a good compensation, but it was not worth the risk. Glad I listened to my gut instinct and called NNA.

Reply by John Tennant on 3/16/11 6:21pm
Msg #376407

Tina, type in proctor in the search field. You will find the correct answers there. It appears that NNA may have mislead you again.

Reply by James Dawson on 3/16/11 6:35pm
Msg #376408

I do this a lot...In Ca if someone gets a traffic ticket they can go to a traffic school and then take a 20 question test about what they learned in school. This test is usually done in their home and witnessed by a notary. I sit there and watch them take the test, Ack a Doc provided by the examiners and that's it. Takes about twenty minutes, pays as much as a loan signing. The NNA'S test is "Proctored" by state examiners. Gheezh!

Reply by janCA on 3/16/11 10:05pm
Msg #376425

Pays as much as a loan signing??????????

James, there's only one notarized signature. How do you justify a loan signing fee? Travel, time?? Not being argumentative, just curious.

Reply by linda/ca on 3/17/11 1:22am
Msg #376437

Re: Pays as much as a loan signing??????????

I was curious about that too, Jan. He must have not understood correctly. I only charge for the one notarization and a very modest travel fee.

Reply by JanetK_CA on 3/17/11 3:38am
Msg #376438

Re: Pays as much as a loan signing??????????

I find that few people are interested in paying much for this, as they've already had to fork out for the ticket and the class and exam. Generally I arrange to meet them somewhere near me and I charge them $10 for the notarization and sometimes another $10 to sit there to watch them take the test. They're usually prepared in advance and I can't recall any of them taking 20 minutes.

BTW, to the original poster, the exam form has a place for the person to sign, so you're not notarizing their test, you're notarizing their signature on the answer sheet. Like someone else said, it's just one more example of the NNA hotline giving out bad info. This notarization is no different than any other (except for the part about watching them take the test). It's just that the general public doesn't understand how to put things into our terminology. That's something that we should be able to do for them. And I won't even start about the NNA...

Reply by TinaCA on 3/17/11 7:14am
Msg #376446

Re: Pays as much as a loan signing??????????

Ok then, Do I attach an acknowledgement to the test then?

Reply by MikeC/NY on 3/17/11 7:59am
Msg #376452

Re: Pays as much as a loan signing??????????

Read her reply again - she said the signature on the answer sheet is what you notarize. If there's no signature on the test paper itself, there's no reason to add an acknowledgment to it.

Depending on how you phrased the question to them, that may partially explain the answer the hot-line gave you. You shouldn't be attaching acknowledgments to documents that don't require notarization. Under some circumstances, that might be considered UPL.

Reply by FlaNotary2 on 3/17/11 10:14am
Msg #376467

I don't know what the NNA teaches in its CA notary classes

but I have a feeling it is along the lines of "attach an acknowledgment to everything".

I constantly see California notaries attach an ack. even when the document has a jurat printed on it; I've seen them attach a loose ack. when the printed ack. complies with California wording; I've seen them attach a loose ack. and put the person's capacity after their name within the certificate itself ("personally appeared John Doe, as President of Deutsche Bank..."); I've even seen them fill out a non-compliant certificate, and seal it, and then attach a compliant acknowledgment, like that makes it OK to also use a non-compliat one.

And 95% of the time I see these mistakes, the seal was manufactured by the NNA. Rarely do these notaries attach jurats - its always loose acks - many of which are sold by the NNA in pads. (And why someone would pay to have loose acks, when the CA SOS offers fillable ones on their website for free, boggles my mind).

Just sayin'.

Reply by Marian_in_CA on 3/17/11 10:23am
Msg #376468

Re: I don't know what the NNA teaches in its CA notary classes

Robert's right on with this... in CA, you can tell who manufactures the seals. Most of the ones from the NNA have "NNA1" on the the border of seal. And it's ture... the vast majority of bonehead errors I see are done by notaries with an NNA seal.

I've proctored exams before, no problem. All of the ones that I've done, though, have a sworn statement signed by the student that they took the exam in the presence of another individual. I am never actually named on that document. However, on the test booklet itself (which is always sent to me, sealed) They ask me to sign the cover page as the proctor, not as a Notary. All it says is that I proctored the exam. They are two distinct documents, so I never have an issue.

Reply by JanetK_CA on 3/17/11 6:54pm
Msg #376556

Re: I don't know what the NNA teaches in its CA notary classes

Interesting. I think these are controlled on a county-wide basis, with different procedures for each county. When I did the first one of these, it was for Riverside County, before the online classes were even an option in Orange County. Since then that's changed and I've done more and more. In OC, nothing is ever sent to me. They bring it all with them and I don't sign anything other than my notary certificate - and I'm pretty sure I've seen acknowledgment wording on at least some of them. So I guess it depends... except for the fact that normal notarial procedure is always appropriate.