Does North Carolina allow the Notary certificate wording to be split between multiple pages? — J.N., North Carolina
No. The entire text of the notarial certificate must be on the same page as the Notary’s seal and signature.
GS 10B-36(b) says, "The seal and the notary’s signature shall appear on the same page of a record as the text of the notarial certificate."
While this statute doesn't directly answer your question, it does implicitly. If the text of the notarial certificate was split on two pages, then to satisfy the requirement of this statute a Notary would have to affix a seal and sign each page containing the text of the certificate. Arguably, this was not the North Carolina General Assembly’s intent in enacting this law. The General Assembly intended for the Notary’s seal and signature to authenticate the entire notarial certificate which attests to the facts of the notarization.
The North Carolina Department of the Secretary of State confirmed this reading of the statute to the NNA.
Hotline answers are based on the laws in the state where the question originated and may not reflect the laws of other states. If in doubt, always refer to your own state statutes. – The Editors
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