Notary Service

The Ritter Public Library provides free Notary Public services for the benefit of the residents of our community. Notary service is normally available during the library’s regular hours of operation. Notary service is not available in the 30 minutes prior to closing. We encourage library customers to call ahead to ensure that a Notary will be available. The following guidelines will be followed for the provision of this service:

· The document to be notarized must be completely filled out, leaving no blanks other than where the customer will sign the document, before appearing before the library Notary. Library Notaries may not notarize any document with blank spaces.

· Remember that documents to be notarized must be signed in front of the Notary (do not sign them beforehand). All people signing the document(s) must be present.

· Documents in any language other than English will not be notarized.

· Notary service is not available for deeds, wills, living wills, living trusts, codicils, depositions, or mortgage or real estate closing documents.

· Certain public documents cannot be copied and notarized. Some examples of these are: birth certificates, death certificates and marriage certificates.

· The Notary must have satisfactory evidence that the person executing the document(s) is the person described in the instrument.

· The person who will sign the document must provide the Notary with at least one valid form of identification that provides a physical description of the signer. The Notary may decline to notarize a document if the signer cannot provide valid identification. Acceptable forms of identification are:

     – A current passport from any country, written in a language that the Notary can read;

     – A valid driver’s license from any state of the United States;

     – A valid non-driver’s photo identification card from any state of the United States; or

     – A United States Military identification card.

· The library will not provide witnesses and witnesses may not be solicited from library staff or customers using the library. In order to serve as a witness, the witness must personally know the person whose document is being notarized and must be in possession of valid photo identification.

· Notaries are required to follow Ohio Revised Code Chapter 147. Notaries will not provide service if a patron, document, or circumstance of the request for Notary service raise any issue of authenticity, ambiguity, doubt, or uncertainty. Under these circumstances, the library Notary may, at his or her sole discretion, decline to provide Notary service.

· Notaries cannot provide legal advice.