Posted by BobbiCT on 5/16/12 10:02am
Msg #420970

CT Notaries Can CERTIFY COPIES

According to the CGA, the Governor signed PA 12-29 "An Act Concerning the Definition of 'Notarial Act'," which includes giving notaries the authority to certify copies of documents.
It takes effect October 1, 2012.

Because there is no statutory notarization block for certifying copies and the Public Act does not include a notarization block for this service, before you do this I suggest that you:

1. Call the Secretary of State's office for the text for the notarization block. As we all know, write your own and you are practicing law! My guess is that the Manual will be updated and the information published on the website.

2. Ask for a list of the documents that you are not allowed to certify copies of. Passport, birth and death certificates are easy ones to figure out; however, read the Act and there are unnamed others. The Act doesn't specify what documents a notary can certify copies of.

REMEMBER: YOU CAN ONLY CHARGE A MAXIMUM OF $5 FOR THIS SERVICE.

Reply by VT_Syrup on 5/16/12 10:33am
Msg #420976

The act can be found at http://www.cga.ct.gov/2012/ACT/PA/2012PA-00029-R00HB-05364-PA.htm

Where is the Connecticut law, rule, or handbook statement that notaries can't compose notarization blocks? That is commonly allowed in many states, although a few consider it unauthorized practice of law. I think the states that prohibit that are rather stupid, because they allow anyone to present a notarization block that came from anywhere to the notary. The notary then needs to read and understand the notarization block and decide if it complies with the law in the notary's state. How is that any harder than composing a block from scratch.

Also, I don't believe there is any rule against copying passports. Where did you find the rule against this?