Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

An attorney cannot notarize a document unless that attorney is also a public notary, licensed with the Secretary of State. When a notary notarizes a document, information about that document is supposed to be entered into a notary's journal, and the journal produced for public inspection upon request. The notary does not keep documents or copies of documents that are notarized, only the journal. When a journal is full, or the notary ceases being a notary, the journals are supposed to be delivered to the California Secretary of State.

I use the word supposed, because in my experience, I have found that for every questioned document that I have encountered in litigation, the notary journal was usually missing, not in the California Secretary of State's possession, or did not even contain an entry for the questioned document.

Attorneys are not usually notaries, and notaries are not usually attorneys. Sometimes the same person will work both jobs, like some locomotive engineers may also work as pipefitters, but they are different licenses and different jobs.

The notary (whether an attorney or not) may still have his notary record book, or a copy of it, and I have had success in lawsuits with taking the deposition of the notary along with a subpoena for his records.

You face two large problems. After six years, the notary may no longer have his records. Also, even if he has his notary book, the amount of information contained in a notary book is scarcely enough to prove much.