Find a Notary > California Notary > Acknowledgment & Jurat

Jurat information
A Jurat is a type of notary act where the signer must swear under oath before 
a notary public. Jurat certificate wording must accompany all Jurat notary acts 
either within the document itself. after the signature area(s), or on an attached 
certificate form.

The new California Jurat requires the signer to be positively identified.
It not longer allows the signer to be identified on the basis of being
personally known to the Notary. Here is the new California Jurat wording below.

State of _____________
County of ___________

Subscribed and sworn to ( or affirmed ) before me on
this ____________ day of _____________, 20___ by

____________________________________________________, proved to me on the basis
of satisfactory evidence to be the person who appeared before me.


___________________________
    ( Signature of Notary )

Acknowledgment information
An acknowledgment is a notary act where the signer acknowledges signing a document 
before a notary public. The act of presenting a signed document before a notary 
public and asking the notary public to notarize the signature constitutes acknowledging 
signing the document. The document may be signed before being in the presence of the 
notary, however, the signer must appear before the notary public to sign the notary 
journal and receive the affixation of the notary seal on the notary certificate.

The words "personally known to me" have been removed from the
new acknowledgment wording. Perhaps there was too much ambiguity
as to how well you have to know a person before they are "personally known".
I found that with strangers, if you meet them a few times for notaries,
and then meet them another time, you will remember them. However, if you
see them several years later, you will not remember them. Therefore,
it seems that proper identification makes better sense than personally
knowing someone. Failure to get a signer properly identified
constitutes perjury and could lead to a fine, since you could
not have positively identified them without proper identification.

Here is the new wording for a California acknowledgment certificate

State of _____________
County of ____________

On _________  before me, ________________________________________, 
                                                       (name of notary public )
personally appeared _____________________________________________
who proved to me on the basis of satisfactory evidence to be the person(s)
whose name(s) is/are subscribed to the within instrument and who acknowledged
to me that he/she/they executed the same in their authorized capacity(ies),
and by his/her/their signature(s) on the instrument the person(s), or entity
upon behalf of which the person(s) acted, executed the instrument.

I certify under PENALTY of PERJURY under the laws of the state of California
that the foregoing paragraph is true and correct.

WITNESS my hand and official seal.


____________________________
       (Signature of Notary)

Related Links
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California Notary Acknowledgment and Jurat Information
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Glossary Links
General Jurat Information
General Acknowledgment Information
General Notary Act Information