New Mexico Notary Rules Under RULONA

Section 14-14A-5 requires a person making a statement or signing a record to appear personally before the notarial officer, with an exception for approved remote online notarization. Under section 14-14A-6, you either know the person through dealings that give reasonable certainty of identity, or you have satisfactory evidence. You may always ask for more information or another credential.

Notarial officers take acknowledgments, administer oaths and affirmations, take verifications on oath (jurats), witness or attest signatures, certify copies and note protests of negotiable instruments. A copy certification cannot be made of a vital record, a public record or a publicly recordable document.

Section 14-14A-14 requires a certificate for every act, completed at the same time as the act. It must be signed and dated, with your signature matching the one on file, and must name the jurisdiction, your title, and your commission number and expiration date. Do not sign the certificate until the act is done, and attach it securely to a paper record. Section 14-14A-15 provides short forms for acknowledgments in an individual or representative capacity, verifications on oath, signature witnessing and copy certification, and the handbook reproduces them in English and Spanish. A remote act's certificate must state that communication technology was used.

A notary public's stamp must be in 10-point type, read State of New Mexico and Notary Public, show your legal name exactly as on your Certificate of Commission with the commission number and expiration date, and carry the Great Seal of the state. It must be registered with the Secretary of State within 45 days of approval and, under section 14-14A-16, before your first act. Section 14-14A-17 makes you responsible for its security: no one else may use it, and when your commission ends you must destroy, deface or otherwise disable it. Report a lost or stolen stamp within 30 days, then register the replacement.

Section 14-14A-18 requires a journal of every notarial act, kept for ten years after the last act recorded, whatever happens to your commission. A paper journal must be a permanent, bound register with numbered pages; an electronic one must be securely stored, tamper-evident, recoverable after a crash, and producible as a PDF. Attorneys acting as notarial officers keep a journal for public work unrelated to an attorney-client relationship. You may instead transfer a journal to the Secretary of State, the state records officer or an approved repository, and a loss or theft must be reported promptly.

Section 14-14A-28 lets you charge the maximum, charge less or waive the fee. The caps are $5 per acknowledgment, $5 per person for an oath or affirmation without a signature, $5 per jurat, and 50 cents per page for copy certifications with a $5 minimum. A travel fee is allowed if agreed before you travel and you explain that it is separate and not set by law. Electronic acts may add a technology fee of up to $25. Employers may not set higher fees, and fees may not depend on who the customer is.

Under section 14-14A-3(B) you may not notarize a record to which you or your spouse or domestic partner is a party, or in which either of you has a direct beneficial interest; such an act is voidable. You may refuse when unsure of a signer's capacity or willingness, but may not discriminate in violation of the Human Rights Act (14-14A-7).

Section 14-14A-24 lists the prohibitions. A commission gives no authority to draft legal records, give legal advice, act as an immigration consultant or represent anyone in an immigration matter. A notary may not advertise falsely, use the terms notario or notario publico unless licensed to practice law, keep a customer's original record, notarize a blank or incomplete record, certify a photograph, act with intent to deceive, or use the title or stamp to promote or oppose a product or candidate. A nonattorney notary who advertises notarial services must include the statutory statement that they are not an attorney, in every language used in the ad.

Each violation of section 14-14A-24 is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $1,000, up to six months in jail, or both. Performing an act knowing your commission has expired brings a $500 fine and removal from office. Separately, the State Ethics Commission may deny, refuse to renew, revoke, suspend or condition a commission for failing to follow RULONA, dishonest application answers, a disqualifying conviction, false advertising, discipline in another state or letting the bond lapse (14-14A-22).

A commissioned notary or automatic notarial officer may add remote authority by completing the separate course and exam, filing an amendment online with a PDF of the electronic stamp and a $75 fee, and registering the stamp within 45 days. The notary must be physically in New Mexico, use an approved system provider, verify identity at the start of the session, watch for coercion, keep an audiovisual recording, and may stop the session if identity or security cannot be confirmed. The rules are at 12.9.4 NMAC.