Duly Sworn: When Notaries Need to Look Beyond the Notarial Certificate
Written by Beth Hathoot
Edited & Updated 08/2026
We’re often taught not to read a signer’s private documents—but does that mean we should only look at the notarial certificate? Sometimes important language within the document itself can signal that a Notary needs to stop, look a little closer, and make sure the requested notarial act is clear.
I have been a notary for over 21-years and have developed habits that I perform consistently based on decisions I have made born of experience. Sometimes I have been challenged to explain why I do something a particular way, and it takes a minute to remember the details of the groundwork laid leading up to those decisions. But I really love it when that happens, because I must take a step back and re-analyze that evidence to make sure it is still valid. That just happen this week.
Someone recently told me that their only responsibility as a Notary is to be concerned with the notary block or certificate and not the body of the document. That may not be a completely true statement.
Some of our basic training as Notaries Public is that what is in the body of a document is not for us to be concerned with. That it is private personal information for the signer. That when we are presented with a document to be notarized that we should only scan it for completeness and never read the private contents of the document. And this applies in many ways to Loan Signings as well as General/Specialty Notary Work.
But sometimes our instructions are contained within the body of the document. That is ever-so-true with respect to Affidavits (in loan document packages or not), Advance Directive documents and sometimes Power of Attorney documents.
Let me give you a few examples
Virginia Durable Power of Attorney, for example, provides instructions within the body of the document (Section IV) concerning notarization and witnesses. A Notary who looked only at the notarial certificate could miss those instructions entirely. This is a good example of why Notaries should scan a document for information relevant to the notarization rather than assuming everything they need to know will appear in the notarial certificate.
Arizona Financial Durable POA gives instructions right above the Principal’s signature line “I, _____________________________, the principal, sign my name to this Financial Durable General Power of Attorney this ___ day of _______, 20__, and being first duly sworn, do declare to the undersigned authority that …”
Tennessee Affidavit of Inheritance gives instructions in the first few sentences of the document. “Under penalties of perjury, the undersigned, duly sworn, deposes and says that”.
Loan Signings will contain ‘Affidavits’ that will have the statement at the beginning of the document that says, ‘After first being duly sworn’. Sometimes that statement will be just above the Principals’ signature line and yet our Notarial certificate will be an Acknowledgement.
This is not reading through the entire document. Instead, we are skimming the document for instructions and should know, with experience, which documents we should be looking closer at for those instructions. And looking for keywords like ‘Affidavit’ in the title of the document to alert us as to whether we should be administering an oath to the signer, regardless of the type of certificate that is included with the document.
Universally we know that we are not authorized to choose the type of certificate to be used…that would be the unauthorized practice of law. That is up to the maker of the document. And sometimes the maker just doesn’t quite understand the significant difference in a notarial certificate. Leaving us with an Acknowledgement on a document that says, “After first being duly sworn”.
If you look up the law definition of “Being first duly sworn” you will find
‘The term duly sworn refers to having been put under oath, before an officer authorized to administer oaths, in the manner and form required by law.’
In our daily situations, the only one in the room authorized to administer that oath is YOU, the Notary. So yes, you do need to scan the document for those key words to know if, in the absence of a notarial certificate or in the presence of the ‘wrong’ certificate on the document, whether you are to administer an oath to your signer.
Sometimes an Affidavit can be just a truthful statement. Something that the signer says ’truthfully’, on his/her own integrity, but not necessarily swearing that it is true. Those key words might look something like;
“I, the undersigned ________________________, do hereby declare that …”
Or
“The undersigned deposes and says…”
To "depose" is merely to state or acknowledge some matter of fact and may not require an Oath be administered unless it is accompanied by a Jurat notarial certificate.
So, you see, as you gain more experience in this industry, that it is not always an easy job. We don’t just stamp and collect our fee. So many details to be aware of and you can’t ever know it all because it can change over time. But for this issue, my practice of administering an Oath when I see those instructions was sound when I made the decision and is still valid today.
Sources & References
Arizona Secretary of State — Notary Public Reference Manual
Virginia General Assembly — Virginia Code § 64.2-1603
PowerofAttorney.com — Virginia Durable Power of Attorney Form
Tennessee Department of Revenue — Affidavit of Inheritance
Written by Beth Hathoot for Notary Stars
Originally Published: 08/27/2022
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