Posted by Gwen McDaniel on 2/11/13 4:07pm
Msg #455274

"Notarized Copy of Your Driver's License"

I have been notarizing estate planning documents for almost 20 years, and now I've been asked to notarize a driver's license to mail in with a college application. I am in the State of Alabama and I'm pretty sure we cannot do this, but I thought I'd ask. I even looked at the school's website to make sure the student was asking correctly. The website says you must mail in the original signature page of the application along with a "notarized copy of your driver's license." I don't think Notaries in Alabama can even authenticate or certify a copy, we are only allowed to notarize signatures. Am I right?

Reply by Linda_H/FL on 2/11/13 4:16pm
Msg #455277

Check your handbook. We can certify copies here

and we CAN certify copies of DLs - BUT we must be the ones to make the copy.

Again - check your handbook or with your SOS.

Reply by NMS/FL on 2/11/13 6:47pm
Msg #455318

Re: Check your handbook. We can certify copies here

Here in FL we can't make certified copies--only, generally speaking, custodians of vital records may--but we can create attested copies from the original of some documents, driver licenses being one of them.

Reply by GOLDGIRL/CA on 2/11/13 4:52pm
Msg #455294

Possibility ...

Don't know what they mean by a "notarized copy of your DL," which cannot be done in CA. Of course, I don't know what Alabama notary code allows, but there is such a thing as Copy Certification by Document Custodian, where, in your case, the student makes a copy of their DL, then writes some sort of statement certifying that this is a true and complete copy of their DL, and then you give an oath, they sign the statement and you do a jurat.

However, the student would have to make sure that this is what the college wants.

I've done this when somebody wanted a copy of a passport

Reply by Don Courtney on 2/11/13 5:21pm
Msg #455299

Re: Possibility ...

I do quite a few ot these requests for assorted documents when people are applying for Work Visa extensions / renewals. I follow the same prrocedures as Gold Girl.

Reply by CarolF/NC on 2/11/13 5:25pm
Msg #455300

In NC we can do what Goldgirl said n/m

Reply by A S Johnson on 2/11/13 5:26pm
Msg #455301

In Texas your driver's license is a recordable document that the issuing agency is the Texas Department of Public Safety. This request would need to be handled by them. Just FYI, in Texas you have a copy of a driver's license, the orginal is held in Austin by the DPS office.

Reply by VT_Syrup on 2/11/13 5:58pm
Msg #455307

Since I have relatives in Texas, I'd be curious whether the DPS would issue a certified copy of a driver's license, including picture. (That is, an extra copy that the driver could send to someone like the university.)

Reply by BrendaTx on 2/11/13 7:09pm
Msg #455323

Sid, the SoS has changed their minds on that.

You can make a notary certified copy of a DL or Passport.

If you don't like the rules in an SoS office...wait awhile...the next person might make a new one up for you.

Reply by Lavergne Manuel on 2/11/13 10:50pm
Msg #455383

In Alabama we don't have much that tells what we can or cannot do, but if there is nothing telling you that you can do it, it is best not to do it. What little we have as far as rules are concerned is on the SOS web-site and that is not on the web-site.

However if the owner of the Drivers License makes the copy in front of you and wrote a statement saying that it is a true copy of his/her drivers license and signed the statement, that probably could be considered a copy by custodian and I beleive you could Notarize his/her signature.

But you will have to use your own judgement on that.

Reply by Jack/AL on 2/12/13 12:06am
Msg #455389

I'm in agreement with what Lavergne said, and he is taking the pro-active approach to try to be helpful. As he said, there is extremely little in the statutes of Alabama (no such thing as a handbook) and the pitiful guidelines are very old and outdated. At times we must be inventive, or the public suffers because there's almost nothing telling what we can/can not do, or how to do it. Lavergne is also spearheading an effort to get the appropriate members of out state government to write and enact the useful statutes and a supporting handbook, to the point of even drafting a rough handbook which he offered for their use. I certainly hope the folks in Montgomery respond favorably.

Reply by Lavergne Manuel on 2/12/13 9:25am
Msg #455415

Jack, thanks for the kind words and it looks like a lost cause again. I have sent an email to all the Representatives and Senators that had a link to their email on the Alabama Legislative site. I received 4 emails from the Representatives including the Speaker of the House but no response from any of the Senators including my Senator who when he was campaigning came to my house and in my front yard when asked what he would do if I sent him a letter about something and his reply was, "I will either call you or send you a letter".

I have sent him 2 letters, 2 emails and called his office once and spoke to his secretary and I have not received a response as of yet. I sure hope he comes back to my house to ask for my vote when he runs for re-election.

The Legislature went in Session 2/7/2012 but it doesn't like anything will happen. I'm 79 years old now and my commission expires in October of this year so this will be my last time to try anything. My dream of helping the Notaries of Alabama were just dreams. Good luck to all Notaries.

Reply by Lavergne Manuel on 2/12/13 9:27am
Msg #455417

I meant the Legislature went in session on 02/07/2013.

Reply by Ilene C. Seidel on 2/12/13 5:13am
Msg #455391

When someone asks me to notarize a copy of a document I have a stamp that says" true and certified" I then have the owner of the document sign underneath the stamp and I notarize their signature. They are certifing the copy is certified not me.