Notarial Acts Permitted in Washington State

A notary who takes an acknowledgement confirms that the person before them was the signing party on a document that has already been signed. In this case, the notary has to confirm not that the document is being signed during the notarial act, but that the document was signed in the past and that the signing party before the notary was the signing party for the original signature.
It is important to note that an acknowledgement can be taken in either an individual or a representative capacity. These two acts have slightly different requirements, with the latter requiring additional information.

• Individual: For an individual acknowledgement, the signing party is confirming that they personally signed the document in the past.
• Representative: An individual may need to sign a record in a representative capacity, either for another individual (such as under a power of attorney) or on behalf of a business entity. For these acknowledgements, the representative must identify their title of authority and the party on behalf of whom the document is being acknowledged.

Administering an oath or affirmation is by itself a simple process. The notary asks the swearing party to raise their right hand and either swear an oath or solemnly affirm that they will perform an action or uphold a specific standard based on the situation. For example, these are commonly used for swearing an official into office, where the new office-holder swears to uphold the standards of that office.

Because taking an oath or affirmation is primarily a verbal act, there is no certificate associated with it.

A notary who certifies or attests a copy of a document is verifying that the document in question is an exact copy of another document. The notary must compare the copy with the original document and determine that the copy is a full, true, and accurate transcription or reproduction of the original.
The simplest way to ensure that the copy meets this standard is for the notary to make the copy themselves when possible. The notary, however, should avoid copying public documents that indicate that they should not be copied. Copies of these documents should be obtained ahead of time by the person requesting the certification.