We are gathered today so that I, the Mighty Obbop, star of neither stage nor screen, can share his accumulated wisdom of a really long time.

“How long, Obbop,” I can envision the assembled multitude shouting out, in unison, sounding like one loud voice that roars across the proverbial fruited plains, echoing off purple-tinted mountains rising majestically above the fore-mentioned plains that, lying within the rain shadow of said mountains likely can not naturally allow the growing of fruit trees unless the bipedal primates infesting the planet where all this is going on perform some sort of irrigation to allow the growing of trees that result in fruited plains.

Oh. Notary fees.

Uhhhh… in the cultural backwater of Nebraska, at least in the Omaha area, every notary I have stumbled across does not charge a fee for stamping their stamp upon the paper needing a notary stamp.

Bank employees, insurance agency workers, there’s a slew of folks ready to make their official notary mark with nary a fee.

Bless their little souls.

The guy behind the counter at the “shipping place” probably does the occasional notarization as his main business is shipping. However full time notaries are up to date on the current notary law and all the types of documents requiring notarizations and how that notarization should be done. Would you want a power of attorney form incorrectly notarized? How about a will or family trust? Would you pay an attorney $5000 to draft a family trust and then have the whole thing worthless in court because you went to the “shipping place notary” cause it only cost $4.00 there?

There are many court cases concerning folks that had documents incorrectly notarized and later found out that the document lost it’s full force and effect because the notarization wasn’t executed correctly.

Here is a link to some cases that I’ve listed on my website, so you can get an idea of the importance of having this done correctly with someone that knows what they are doing http://mymobilenotary.us/news.htm

And of course it’s expected that traveling notaries will charge traveling fees. No point in driving 60 miles if you can only make $2.00 for a notarization.

You should be aware, though, that some states allow a notary to charge per signature rather than per notarization. In those states, multiple signers on a document allows the notary to charge the state-authorized fee for each signature rather than each stamp. Florida is not one of those states, however.

FYI, most states also have a prescribed method to file a complaint about notary misconduct. For Florida, the method is listed on the Secretary of State’s website and at the Governor’s Office website. If a complaint is found to be true, the State will revoke the notary’s commission.