A credible witness is a person who appears before a notary, together with a principal, and tells the notary who the principal is. In some states the credible witness takes an oath swearing about the identity of the principal. A subscribing witness appears before an authorized official and signs a statement that the principal signed a document on some previous occasion; this is done INSTEAD of having the principal appear before the authorized official.
I understand that notaries in New York and California can, under some circumstances, be the official that the subscribing witness can appear before. In my state, the subscribing witness would have to appear before a judge.
These are the way terms are usually used in general descriptions of notary law in the US; of course individual states can make up their own terminology. |
