New Georgia Law Regarding Notaries

House Bill 1292 (HB 1292) now imposes new duties on Georgia Notaries effective January 1, 2025. The new law is designed to ensure that deeds, mortgages, liens, maps, plats and state executions are properly authenticated. O.C.G.A. Section 44-2-2 defines “self-filers” as any person who is not exempt. Exempt persons are insurance agents, attorneys, banks, lenders, public officials and surveyors and representatives of these exempt persons. Whenever someone asks a notary public to sign and seal (notarize) a document, notaries must follow the new rule which appears at O.C.G.A. §§ 45-17-1 — 45-17-20.

Notaries have authority to:

(1) Witness or attest signature or execution of deeds and other written instruments;
(2) Take acknowledgments;
(3) Administer oaths and affirmations in all matters incidental to their duties as commercial officers and all other oaths and affirmations which are not by law required to be administered by a particular officer;
(4) Witness affidavits upon oath or affirmation;
(5) Take verifications upon oath or affirmation;
(6) Make certified copies, provided that the document presented for copying is an original document and is neither a public record nor a publicly recorded document, certified copies of which are available from an official source other than a notary, and provided that the document was photocopied under supervision of the notary; and
(7) Perform such other acts as they are authorized to perform by other laws of this state.

Notaries are not obligated to perform a notarial act if he or she feels it is:

(1) For a transaction which the notary knows or suspects is illegal, false, or deceptive;
(2) For a person who is being coerced;
(3) For a person whose demeanor causes compelling doubts about whether the person knows the consequences of the transaction requiring the notarial act; or
(4) In situations which impugn and compromise the notary’s impartiality, as specified in subsection (c) of this Code section.

In performing any notarial act, a notary public shall confirm the identity of the document signer, oath taker, or affirmant by verification of a government issued photo identification document, including without limitation a valid driver’s license, personal identification card authorized under Code Sections 40-5-100 through 40-5-104, or a military identification card such as a Veterans Health Identification Card issued by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, or based on personal knowledge.

A notary public shall maintain a written or electronic journal which shall include an entry for each notarial act performed at the request of a self-filer. Each such entry shall include the name of the self-filer; the self-filer’s address; the self-filer’s telephone number; the date, time, and location of notarization; the type of government issued photo identification document presented by the self-filer, unless the identity of the self-filer was confirmed based on personal knowledge; elements of such identification document, if applicable, including any identifying number; the self-filer’s signature; and the type of document presented for notarization.

The signature of a notary public documenting a notarial act shall not be evidence to show that such notary public had knowledge of the contents of the document so signed, other than those specific contents which constitute the signature, execution, acknowledgment, oath, affirmation, affidavit, verification, or other act which the signature of that notary public documents, nor is a certification by a notary public that a document is a certified or true copy of an original document evidence to show that such notary public had knowledge of the contents of the document so certified.

In addition to the new requirement regarding journaling and clarification  that a government issued ID is sufficient to confirm the signer’s identity, the new law imposes a training requirement for Georgia notaries and authorizes the Georgia Superior Court Clerks’ Cooperative Authority to implement rules to implement these requirements.