The orginal question was does Michigan require a stamp for a notarial act to be valid. The answer is NO.
Others responded with the correct answer.
You added commentary to the subject and said "Are you sure?"
You then added additional commentary to the previous responders and told them they "better check their source again."
You did go on to say that YOUR PERSONAL INTERPERTATION OF Public Act 238. I think your caught up on the phrase you typed: already printed on the docs., there is no need for a stamp. Then you went on to say you have never seen all of your personal required notarial information preprinted on any docs, hence the need for a stamp. That is a wrong assumption on your part.
You may have mislead the original poster into thinking a stamp is sometimes required when it is never required. That could cause trouble.
The state's notarial laws had not been revised since the 1800's. Your signature is your proof that you were there--I caution you not to fall into reinventing the wheel, so to speak, at the suggestions of national notary associations or out state notaries who want to "protect" the notarization. That is not the job of the notary, and I am still dismayed, after being on these boards that experienced notaries still do not get it.
Now for the fun part, if you are a Michigan notary and you want to do closing work with national companies, they want a stamp. It's just not a battle worth fighting. Title companies really cannot tell you what to do, but to keep the peace I use the stamp. I have ALWAYS had two stamps, one for my home county and one for the acting in county prior to the new public act. It just saved writing time. Recordable instruments should not be embossed alone as the embosser is not clearly reproduced on scanning equipment.
There IS a bill in our legislation, in case you were unaware, that would get rid of the "acting in" for your home county. The old law did not have it, but the government got a bit crazy since most of them do not really know what a notary does or what a venue is and thought more was better, when it really wasn't. The whole acting in thing is redundant as the venue has the county where the act is done.
So why don't you bring out our township planning application story as this may clarify your thoughts on the law?
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