Frequently Asked Questions:

Q.  Does the person who signed the document need to be present?  Can I bring in a document signed by someone else?
A.  The document must be signed in the presence of the notary.   The signer must appear before the Notary with proper identification.  

Q.  Are Louisiana notaries required to use a seal?
A.  An embossed seal or stamp is not required.  A Louisiana notary's signature is his seal.  

Q.  What forms of ID are acceptable?
A.  We accept original government issued identification documents.  We can accept a Driver's License, State ID, Passport, TWIC Card, or Merchant Mariner Credential.  

Q.  My document requires a Medallion Signature Guarantee.  Can you do that?
A.  No.  The Medallion Signature Guarantee program is provided by the financial services industry.  It is not a notarial act.  Check with your local bank as they may be able to provide this service.   Participants in the MSG program can be found at http://www.msglookup.com/search.html

Q.  Do you notarize wills prepared by an online service?
A.  We do not notarize wills prepared by third parties.  

Q.  I have a document(s) going out of the country that has to be certified (apostilled, state sealed, authenticated). What do I need to do?
A.  Documents going to another country require certification by the Secretary of State. The Commissions Division certifies the signature of the acknowledging Louisiana official, including notaries.  More information can be found here: https://www.sos.la.gov/NotaryAndCertifications/Certifications/AuthenticateSignaturesOfLouisianaOfficials/Pages/default.aspx

A Louisiana Civil Law Notary is a public official that has broad powers to draft and execute documents as well as administer oaths.  Unlike common law notaries from other states, Louisiana notaries are empowered to do much more than simply serve as an "official witness." The far-reaching powers granted to Louisiana civil law notaries are listed in Louisiana RS 35:2.

A.(1)  Notaries public have power within their several parishes:

(a)  To make inventories, appraisements, and partitions;

(b)  To receive wills, make protests, matrimonial contracts, conveyances, and generally, all contracts and instruments of writing;

(c)  To hold family meetings and meetings of creditors;

(d)  To receive acknowledgements of instruments under private signature;

(e)  To make affidavits of correction;

(f)  To affix the seals upon the effects of deceased persons, and to raise the same.

(2)  All acts executed by a notary public, in conformity with the provisions of Civil Code Art. 1833, shall be authentic acts.

(3)  Notwithstanding any provision in the law to the contrary, a notary public shall have power, within the parish or parishes in which he is authorized, to exercise all of the functions of a notary public and to receive wills in which he is named as administrator, executor, trustee, attorney for the administrator, attorney for the executor, attorney for the trustee, attorney for a legatee, attorney for an heir, or attorney for the estate.

B.  However, each notary public of this state shall have authority to administer oaths in any parish of the state, to swear in persons who appear to give testimony at a deposition before a general reporter or free-lance reporter certified under the provisions of R.S. 37:2551 et seq., and to verify interrogatories and other pleadings to be used in the courts of record of this state.  Such oaths, and the certificates issued by such notaries shall be received in the courts of this state and shall have legal efficacy for purposes of the laws on perjury.

C.  Every qualified notary public is authorized to certify true copies of any authentic act or any instrument under private signature hereafter or heretofore passed before him or acknowledged before him, and to make and certify copies, by any method, of any certificate, research, resolution, survey or other document annexed to the original of any authentic acts passed before him, and may certify such copies as true copies of the original document attached to the original passed before him.