Missouri Notary Rules a New Notary Must Follow

Section 486.645 lets you notarize only if the principal is in your presence, is personally known to you or identified by satisfactory evidence, appears to understand the transaction, appears to act freely, signs in a language you understand, and can communicate directly with you. A person who cannot write may sign by mark if two disinterested witnesses watch and sign beside it and you add the statutory notation below the mark.

Unlike many states, Missouri limits refusals. Section 486.650 requires you to perform a requested act for anyone who pays the fee unless you believe the act or transaction is unlawful, the act is barred by law, the volume or timing makes it impractical right then, or you are not registered for an electronic act. You may never refuse based on a characteristic protected from employment discrimination.

Section 486.600 defines satisfactory evidence as one of the following:

Sections 486.700 and 486.705 require one active journal at a time, a permanently bound book with numbered pages, kept for at least 10 years after the last entry. For each act, record the date and time, the type of act, the document's type or title, each principal's signature, printed name and address, any requester of fact, the evidence of identity, the fee, and the location if it was not your regular workplace. Never write a Social Security or credit card number in it.

Keep the journal secure and never hand it to an employer. Report a lost or stolen journal to the Secretary within 10 days, after notifying police in a theft. When the commission ends, the journal and records go to the Secretary within 30 days; if you are reapplying, you have three months, and the handover is not needed if you are recommissioned within that time (Sections 486.715 and 486.795).

Section 486.730 requires a clear, photographically reproducible seal image near your signature showing your name exactly as commissioned, your commission number, the words Notary Public, Notary Seal, State of Missouri, and My commission expires with the date, inside a rectangular or circular border. Do not stamp over printed or written matter. An embosser may supplement the seal but cannot replace it.

Under Section 486.740, each certificate must include your official signature, the seal, the venue (state and county where you are), the date and the facts you attest. Sections 486.750 to 486.765 set out forms for an acknowledgment, a jurat, a signature witnessing and a certified copy. A loose certificate must be stapled or fastened so removal leaves evidence, and you may fix an error only after checking your journal, initialing and dating the change, and noting it in the journal.

Section 486.685 caps an acknowledgment, a jurat and a signature witnessing at $5 per signature, and a certified copy at $1 per page with a $3 minimum. A travel fee is allowed only if agreed before the trip and explained as separate from the notarial fee. No fee may be charged for notarizing an absentee ballot or absentee voter registration, and a notary who charges must post a fee schedule in type no smaller than 12 point.

Section 486.645 disqualifies you from notarizing when you are a party to or named in the document, when you would gain more than the allowed fee, or when the principal is your spouse, domestic partner, ancestor, descendant or sibling, including in-law, step and half relatives. Other sections forbid:

Missouri notaries may register with the Secretary to notarize electronically and, separately, to perform remote online notarizations, each after an extra course and exam. Remote acts are limited to acknowledgments and jurats (Section 486.1140). You must be physically in Missouri; the signer may be anywhere, including abroad if the act is not prohibited where the signer is. Each remote session is recorded, and the recording and electronic journal are kept at least 10 years. The Secretary's rules require identity checks through credential analysis and a five-question knowledge quiz answered within two minutes, with at least four correct.

Under Section 486.805, a notary is liable for all damages caused by negligence, violation of law or official misconduct, the surety up to the $10,000 bond, and an employer who encouraged or tolerated the misconduct. The Secretary may revoke a commission on any ground for denying an application, must revoke it when the notary no longer lives or works in Missouri, and may suspend it immediately where the public faces serious harm (Sections 486.810 and 486.815). A notary whose commission is revoked must send the seal to the Secretary or risk a $500 fine.