Your Kitsap County Professional Mobile Notary and Apostille Service

A Notary Public is an official of integrity appointed by state government to serve the public as an impartial witness in performing a variety of official fraud-deterrent acts related to the signing of important documents. These official acts are called notarizations, or notarial acts. In Washington State, notaries are commissioned b y the Department of Licensing.

A Notary Signing agent (NSA) is a notary who has completed special training to handle real estate loan transactions. A certified NSA undergoes an annual extensive background check and also carries a higher level of E&O insurance.

A Notary’s duty is to screen the signers of important documents for their true identity, their willingness to sign without duress or intimidation, and their awareness of the contents of the document or transaction. Some notarizations also require the Notary to put the signer under an oath, declaring under penalty of perjury that the information contained in a document is true and correct. Property deeds, wills and powers of attorney are examples of documents that commonly require a Notary.

The most common method of verifying a signer’s identity is to look at some form of identifying documents. The Washington State notary statutes point out several options for documents that a notary can use to verify a signer’s identity:
 A passport
 A driver’s license
 A government-issued identification card
 Another form of government identification that contains the signature or photograph of the individual and is satisfactory to the notary

Through the process of notarization, notaries deter fraud by verifying the identity of a signer and determining that they understand what they are signing and are doing so of their own free will.