Certified Copies
There are two statutes in the Montana Code Annotated (MCA) that directly address the issue of a notary’s responsibilities when asked to certify a document or a copy of a document. They are reprinted here with emphasis added to the relevant sections:
(1) A notary public shall: … (c) whenever requested and upon payment of the required fees, make and give a certified copy of any record kept or that originated in the notary public's place of employment. ...
(2) A notary public may not: … (c) certify a document issued by a public entity, such as a birth, death, or marriage certificate, unless the notary is employed by the entity issuing or holding the original version of that document.
…(4) In certifying or attesting a copy of a document or other item, the notarial officer shall determine that the proffered copy is a full, true, and accurate transcription or reproduction of that which was copied.
Although it may appear that there is a contradiction in the law between MCA 1-5-416(2)(c) and 1-5-603(4), the following clarification may be helpful:
A Montana Notary Public may not “(c) certify a document issued by a public entity, such as a birth, death, or marriage certificate, unless the notary is employed by the entity issuing or holding the original version of that document.” Montana Code Annotated 1-5-416(2)(c).
A Montana Notary Public may certify or attest that a copy of a document or other item is a full, true, and accurate transcription or reproduction of that which was copied, upon making such a determination. Montana Code Annotated 1-5-603(4). The language approved as a “short form” in MCA 1-5-610(5) is: “I certify that this is a true and correct copy of a document in the possession of __________________.”
This is quite different from certifying a document issued by a public entity. If an individual brought a certified copy of an out of state birth certificate, a Montana Notary could make a copy and attest that the copy is a true and correct copy of a document in the possession of the individual. This is certainly not a certified copy, quite a large step removed from the certification made by the officer in whose custody the document is held.
The Montana Notary could also notarize a jurat by the individual swearing that the copy on which the jurat and signature are affixed is a true and correct copy of another document. The Notary would then only be charged with determining the true identity of the signer, not the accuracy of the copy. Again, this would not be a certified copy.
The definition of a certified copy in Black’s Law Dictionary (seventh Edition, 1999) is “A duplicate of an original (usually official) document, certified as an exact reproduction usually by the officer responsible for issuing or keeping the original.” Certified copy is what is intended by 1-5-416(2)(c) above, not 1-5-603(4). A Montana notary would be wise to determine if an individual needs a certified copy, in which case the attestation to a true and correct copy should not be done. |
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