How Notarizing Legal Agreements Can Further Protect You
Notarizing legal agreements, like a power of attorney or a contract, is a process in which a notary public affixes his or her notary seal as proof that the facts therein are accurate. Although, having your legal agreements notarized doesn’t make it legal, the notary seal only ensures that the signatures on the agreements are indeed signed by the parties whose names appear on the documents.
To reiterate, the notaries public only notarize signatures, not the legal agreement itself. Before, the law required that all types of contracts to have notary seals. Documents that are frequently notarized includes contracts, powers of attorney, agreements, and deeds.
However, when your legal agreements are notarized by a notary public, it gives the document a legal protection of authenticity with respect to rules of evidence. In court, the notarized signature establishes or proves that you are indeed the person signing the official document. A notary public also witnesses that you have signed the document without force or under any duress. In documents like affidavits and applications, the notary public has to requests all signers to swear an oath to the accuracy of the signed document’s contents. Aside from protecting you in court, having your signature notarized on your legal agreements will potentially save you money.
When your signature is notarized, the notary public protects you as a signer. Each time someone requests a notarization, he or she is required to submit a proof of identification. Thus, when you need to prove a signature on a signed legal agreement, the notarized signature already backs your claims. For instance, in a contract dispute, it can protect you from an accusation of forgery from someone who signed the contract in front of a notary public.
In summary, having your legal agreements notarized gives you that added protection every time someone is going to contests the validity of a signature in a legal proceeding. So the next time you signed a legal agreement, do it in front of a notary public. You can start looking in your Secretary of State’s website, or you can use free notary directories like FindNotary, for a notary public to notarized your signature.
