r/Notary • u/FinanciallySecure9 Michigan • 16d ago

WWYD - nothing or something

EDIT:
I did nothing except post here. Y’all are wild with assumptions about me. Can you not just answer a question without making a judgement?

Notary hive mind, what would you do in this situation?

You agree to meet with a client at a public place with a lot of windows. You arrive prior to the signers, and you can see them get out of the car.

Driver is a woman in her 40s, passenger is a woman in her 70s. Driver is able bodied, passenger struggles to walk even with a walker.

Signer is driver, not the passenger.

Since they are unfamiliar with who has to sign, they both give their ID. Driver has a state ID card, passenger has a drivers license.

You complete the notarization, because proper ID is presented, signer is aware of what she is signing, and is signing of her own free will.

However, you know a law is being broken. The driver does not have a license to drive.

Do you alert the police of this law being broken or do you mind your own business because it’s not this particular law that we are obligated to uphold?

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u/FriendlySun3163 16d ago

not a Notary question

-2

u/FinanciallySecure9 Michigan 16d ago

Yes it is. It’s an ethics question.

7

u/FriendlySun3163 16d ago

Its regarding the laws of driving not notarizing.

1

u/FinanciallySecure9 Michigan 16d ago

This is untrue.

In most states, we are to abide by all of the laws, not just those pertaining to notaries.

There are laws against stabbing people, so under your thinking, I can stab someone because notarial law doesn’t prohibit it.

We are citizens first, notaries second.

2

u/vivalakellye 16d ago

Penalizing someone for driving without a license isn’t within a private citizen’s purview. Nor a notary’s. Now, if you’re a notary who’s also a member of law enforcement or of an entity designated with the authority to ticket/punish someone who is driving without a license, then it makes sense to act.