Notary journals contain valuable records of your past acts. But what do you do with Notary journals you no longer use? Do you send them to someone? Do you keep them? What if your Notary journal is lost or stolen? Here are some important tips.
Can I discard Notary journals I don’t use anymore?
Even if you’ve accumulated a large stack of full journals, don’t throw them out willy-nilly. In fact, doing so in some states is a violation of Notary law.
Generally, states that require Notaries to keep a journal also provide guidelines for keeping and disposing of journal records.
How long do I keep my Notary journals?
Some states require you to keep all journal records until you stop being a Notary, then turn them over to a government agency. In Colorado, when a Notary’s commission ends, the Notary may choose to keep a journal for 10 years and notify the Secretary of State of where it is kept, leave the journal with the Notary’s employer and provide the Secretary of State with the employer’s contact information or send the journal to the state archives and notify the Secretary of State. These provisions also apply to recordings of remote online notarial acts.
California requires its Notaries to keep all completed journals as long as they maintain a current Notary commission. California Notaries whose commissions end without being renewed must turn in their journals within 30 days to the county clerk’s office where their oath of office is on file. Willful failure to deliver journals to the county clerk of the county in which the Notary’s oath and bond are filed is a misdemeanor and subjects the Notary to personal liability to any person injured as a result.
Hawaii requires its Notaries to retain their journals for 10 years after the date of the last act recorded in the journal. If the Notary resigns their commission, the Notary retains the journal for the time period required by law and informs the Attorney General’s office of the location of the journal.
Other states require Notaries to keep their journals for a certain period of time.
Arizona requires Notaries to keep a journal record of every notarization for 5 years after the date it was performed. That means 5 years after the last entry was recorded. Only then may they be destroyed. However, if you stop being a Notary in Arizona, you must turn in journals with entries dated less than 5 years ago to the Secretary of State. However, Arizona allows Notaries to keep separate journals for public records and non-public records. Any records of notarial acts that are not public records are the property of the Notary’s employer and are not turned in to the Secretary of State.
Maryland requires Notaries to retain journal entries for 10 years after the last entry recorded in the journal, and inform the Secretary of State of the journal’s location when the Notary’s commission permanently ends. Massachusetts requires Notaries to keep all journal records for 7 years after they stop being a Notary. New York requires Notary records to be retained by the Notary for at least 10 years.
Texas requires traditional journal records to be kept for 3 years or for the term of the commission in which the notarization occurred, whichever is longer. So if you perform a notarization and there are 2 years left on your Notary commission, you keep the journal record for 3 years. However, Texas officials recommend keeping journal records permanently as a best practice. Texas Notaries who perform remote online notarizations must maintain electronic records of their online notarizations for 5 years following the date of notarization.
What if my employer wants my journals?
Only Arizona, Colorado and Oregon allow Notaries to turn journals over to employers — and even then, you only may do so under special circumstances. In other states, the journal is usually considered the Notary’s personal property and must remain exclusively under your control. It may not be kept by an employer even if your employer paid for your commission or you changed jobs.
What if my Notary journal is lost or stolen?
If any of your journals are lost or stolen, be sure to report the loss to the proper authorities as set out by your state laws. California and Montana require you to notify the Secretary of State. California requires the notice to be sent by certified or registered mail (or by any physical means of delivery with a receipt) and include the dates covered in the missing journal, along with your commission number and expiration date, and a copy of the police report, if applicable.
Arizona, Hawaii and Texas require you to report a lost or stolen journal to the Secretary of State (or Attorney General in Hawaii) and also to local police. Arizona and Hawaii require Notaries to report any lost or stolen journal within 10 days.
Illinois requires Notaries to report a lost, stolen or compromised journal to the Secretary of State’s office either in writing or electronically. The Illinois Notary must include the journal’s status (e.g. lost, destroyed or stolen); how the journal became lost, stolen or compromised; the date the Notary discovered the situation; a statement that the journal is destroyed or no longer in the possession of the Notary; and a second statement that if the journal is recovered the Notary will notify the Secretary of State in writing within 10 days after date of recovery with an explanation how the journal was reacquired (IAC 176.940 b)).
If you are commissioned in a state that does not provide guidelines for reporting a missing journal and your records are stolen, the NNA recommends filing a report with local law enforcement.
What if my state does not have rules for keeping a journal?
Even if your state does not require keeping a journal (such as Alabama), or only requires a journal in certain cases (such as Florida, which requires an electronic journal record only for remote online notarizations that must be retained for 10 years after the date of the notarial act, but does not require a journal for other types of notarizations) it’s still a good practice to keep a journal record of all your notarizations. The information in a completed journal could be vital to proving you acted properly if you’re ever accused of negligence or fraud in a court of law. Also, journals often contain sensitive personal information about your customers, such as addresses, driver’s license numbers or other data that could be used for fraud or identity theft. So even if your state does not require you to maintain old journal records, it’s advisable to keep them for a period of time in the event one of your previous notarizations is challenged or questioned in a court case.
In the absence of official state rules for the disposal of a journal, The Notary Public Code of Professional Responsibility recommends safeguarding and storing each journal for at least 10 years from the date of the last entry in the journal.
David Thun is the Editorial Manager with the National Notary Association.
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