A visitor of this site offers this as a possible solution...
| Asking you to notarize paperwork from another state that you did not witness the person signing was not just unethical, but illegal. As a notary public, you are bound by law to execute instruments per your state statutes. There may be slight differences in the laws and requirements of notaries in each state, but I do believe that one of the requirements in all states is that “a notary public may not notarize a signature on a document if the person whose signature is being notarized is not in the presence of the notary public at the time the signature is notarized” (Florida State Statute 117.107). Committing this act is unethical, yes, and is illegal, too! It will compromise your notary public commission AND is punishable by law. In Florida, it is a third degree felony to notarize a document that has already been signed (person who signs is not present for the signature).
You absolutely did do the right thing! You can report your employer to your state department of labor for asking you to break the law and using your job as leverage in order to receive your compliance (the repeated emails).
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A visitor of this site offers this as a possible solution...
| You did the thing that you felt you must. Others may have made a different decision, but if you aren't supposed to, and didn't, then you can feel assured that you did the right thing. I suppose this is why Judge Judy doesn't accept notarized statements. God I love Judge Judy ;)
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A visitor of this site offers this as a possible solution...
| I think you did the ethical thing in telling your boss you are not comfortable notarizing the documents. I do however, think instead of sending the emails to the owner you should have taken them directly to him/her and explained the situation. This way if he/she had any questions or concerns they could have talked to you directly. Did you explain what ramifications could happen to YOU directly by notarizing documents that you did not see personally signed? I would imagine if there were concerns if would have come back on you since it was your notary stamp.
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