Utah Notary Rules and Duties

Section 46-1-6 limits a Utah notary to five acts: a jurat, an acknowledgment, a signature witnessing, a copy certification, and an oath or affirmation. Anything else is off limits, and so is performing any of the five when the person is not in your presence. Presence means physically close enough to see and hear each other, or, for a certified remote notary, connected by approved technology that allows simultaneous sight and sound. A copy certification may only be made of a document that is neither a public record nor publicly recorded, so birth certificates and court records are out.

Under section 46-1-2(25), if you do not personally know the signer, you may rely on one of four things. Personally knowing someone means enough dealings over time to eliminate every reasonable doubt about who they are, and you carry the burden of showing that if challenged.

Section 46-1-6.5 supplies sample wording for each act, and a correctly completed certificate in substantially that form is sufficient. Before witnessing a jurat signature you must have the signer swear or affirm, under penalty of perjury, that the statements in the document are true. Section 46-1-9 forbids a certificate you know is false or materially incomplete; leaving out the signer's name or the place and date are classic examples. A certificate for a remote act must say that it was performed remotely. If preprinted wording is wrong, fix it yourself by crossing out, correcting and initialing; do not let anyone else alter it.

Section 46-1-16 sets precise specifications. The seal must be a sharp, photographically reproducible rendering in purple ink for in-person work, or black for remote work, inside a rectangular border no larger than one inch by two and one-half inches. Inside it: your name exactly as on the commission, the words notary public, state of Utah and my commission expires on followed by the date, your commission number, and a facsimile of the Great Seal of the state. An embosser may be added but cannot replace the inked seal. Never use the seal without a certificate, never let anyone else use it, and sign only the name on your commission. Destroy the seal when you resign or the commission ends; a name change during the term also calls for a new seal and a bond rider.

Notaries commissioned on or after May 6, 2026 must keep a physical, permanently bound journal in chronological order, in a secure location, and in their exclusive custody (sections 46-1-13 to 46-1-15). Remote acts go in a separate secure electronic journal. Each entry, made at the time of the act, records the date and time, the type of act, the document's title or description, the ID type, issuing agency, last four digits of the ID number and its issue and expiration dates (or the credible individual's details), any oath given, the signer's signature, printed name and address, and the fee. Refusals are recorded too, with the reason.

Keep the journal for 10 years after its last entry, even if you stop being a notary, then shred or otherwise destroy it. Notaries employed by an attorney, law firm or title agency need not journal acts done within that employment. An employer cannot demand your journal when you leave. Members of the public may inspect a single entry during business hours if they identify themselves, specify the act, document, month and year and signer, and sign the journal.

Section 46-1-12 caps fees at $10 per signature for acknowledgments and jurats, $10 per page for copy certifications, $10 per person for an oath without a signature, and $10 per signature witnessing. A remote notary may charge up to $25 for each act performed remotely. A travel fee is allowed only up to the federal mileage rate and only if you explain that it is separate from the notarial fee and not set by law, and the customer agrees in advance. Display an English fee schedule. Help with immigration forms is capped at $10 per person per set of forms.

Under section 46-1-7 you may not notarize a document you sign or are named in, with narrow exceptions such as self-proved wills and attorneys named only as counsel, and you may not act when you will receive direct compensation from a financial transaction in which you are named individually as a principal, or from a real property transaction in which you are named as a grantor, grantee, buyer, seller or similar party. Section 46-1-8 cuts the other way: you must serve anyone who tenders the fee for a lawful transaction and may not steer people toward or away from a transaction. You may not use your title or seal to promote a product (46-1-10). A nonattorney notary may not give legal or immigration advice, must include a specific not-an-attorney notice in any ad in a language other than English, and may not use a translation of notary public that implies being a lawyer (46-1-11).

A notary is personally liable for damage caused by misconduct, the surety is liable up to the bond amount, and an employer that knew of or allowed the misconduct can be liable too (46-1-18). Violating the chapter is a class B misdemeanor unless another law already makes it a crime, and so is unlawful interference with a notary's seal, journal or equipment. The Lieutenant Governor may revoke or suspend a commission on any ground that would justify denying one. Report a name change with a bond rider, or an address change, within 30 days, and resign if you stop living or working in Utah. Remote notaries need a vendor contract, $10,000 in total bond coverage and a separate $50 application.