Free LA Notary Exam Flashcards

Louisiana's legal system descends from French and Spanish colonial codes and the Napoleonic Code, predating the 1803 Louisiana Purchase — not English common law like the other 49 states. This history is why its notary holds attorney-like drafting powers unmatched elsewhere in the U.S.

A common-law notary merely verifies identity and witnesses a signature on a document someone else prepared. A Louisiana notary is a quasi-judicial public officer who may draft the document itself — contracts, wills, and authentic acts — a power common-law notaries lack entirely.

Wills (notarial testaments), powers of attorney (mandates), acts of sale/mortgage of real estate, donations, and matrimonial agreements. In common-law states, drafting these documents for someone else is the unauthorized practice of law.

A Louisiana commission is granted for life, unlike most states' 4-year renewable terms. The lifetime grant is a major reason the entrance exam is treated like a mini bar exam rather than a renewable clerical license.

'Succession' is Louisiana's civil-law term for probate/estate transfer. Notaries may prepare sworn descriptive lists and small-succession affidavits, and — when court-appointed — formal inventories, a function reserved to attorneys or executors in common-law states.

Applicants must be at least 18, a Louisiana resident (citizen or lawfully residing alien), and a registered voter in the parish where they seek commission — an out-of-state resident cannot qualify even if they work daily in Louisiana.

The parish of voter registration controls, not the parish of employment. A Lafayette-registered voter who works in Baton Rouge must qualify and be commissioned in Lafayette Parish.

An unpardoned felony conviction disqualifies an applicant, but a full pardon restores eligibility. The disqualifier is specifically the word 'unpardoned' — a common exam trap treats any felony as a permanent bar, which is false.

A high school diploma, approved home-study diploma, or GED is required — not a college or law degree. Lacking any diploma disqualifies an applicant even if they already work in a law office.

A mandatory, one-time, $30 online reading-comprehension screen administered through LSU, completed before exam registration. It carries no passing score — a candidate may sit the state exam regardless of their pre-assessment result.

A Louisiana-licensed attorney is exempt from both the written exam and the pre-assessment, and from the surety bond. The attorney still must file the Application to Qualify, two oaths of office, and an official signature page — bar admission alone does not create a commission.

Computer-based, administered at the LSU Baton Rouge testing center on multiple dates each month, in a single 4-hour sitting — replacing the old once-a-year paper exam that many outdated guides still describe.

A scaled score of 70 out of 100. There is no quota curve, which is part of why the historical pass rate stays roughly 15-25% even though the exam is open-book.

The exam wraps rules inside scenario fact patterns, so candidates must already know where a rule lives to retrieve it within the 4-hour window. Slow, un-tabbed page-flipping — not a lack of the book — is the main reason candidates run out of time and fail.

$35 Application to Qualify, then $30 pre-assessment, then $100 to register for the state exam, then $35 after passing to file commissioning documents — roughly $200 total in state fees before the surety bond.

There is no limit on attempts, and since the move to computer-based testing at LSU, sittings open on multiple dates each month rather than once every six months. Each attempt requires a new $100 registration fee; the pre-assessment is not repeated.

Signed by each party, by two competent witnesses, and by the notary — all in the notary's presence (CC Art. 1833). A one-party act therefore carries at least four signatures; drop either witness and it is not authentic.

Under CC Art. 1835 it is full proof of its contents against the parties, their heirs, and third persons — admissible without further authentication. Overturning it requires a direct action such as a forgery claim, not a simple denial of signing.

A witness must be at least 16 years old (not 18) and of sound mind, and cannot be a party to the act. The notary can never serve as one of the two required witnesses — a frequently tested trap.

Under CC Art. 1834 it is not automatically void — it can survive as an act under private signature if the party signatures are genuine. It loses self-proving status and recordability but still binds the parties once acknowledged.

An acknowledgment lets a signer later swear before a notary that a private signature is genuine — no witnesses required, and it only proves the signature. It never becomes an authentic act, so it cannot satisfy a rule requiring authentic form, such as a donation of immovable property.

A jurat ('sworn to and subscribed before me') is used when the signer swears the document's contents are true, as in an affidavit. An acknowledgment is used when the signer merely confirms a signature already made — attaching the wrong certificate is a common practical error.

Under R.S. 35:2, a Louisiana notary may administer oaths and affirmations statewide, in any parish — even a notary whose authentic-act authority is limited to one parish can swear in a witness anywhere in Louisiana.

A donation inter vivos of immovable property is null unless made by authentic act (CC Art. 1541). An acknowledged private act cannot substitute, unlike an ordinary sale, which is valid between the parties in private form.

Louisiana's Civil Code calls it a 'mandate' (the contract) or 'procuration' (the written instrument) — the granting party is the principal (mandator), and the agent is the mandatary. 'Power of attorney' is the common-law label, not the Code's term.

CC Art. 2993: a mandate needs no particular form generally, but if the act it authorizes requires a specific form, the mandate must match it. A mandate to sell immovable property must therefore be an authentic act, since the sale itself needs that form to be recorded.

CC Art. 2996 requires express authority to alienate, acquire, encumber, or lease a thing; CC Art. 2997 requires express authority for inter vivos donations, accepting or renouncing a succession, borrowing money, and signing an authentic act. A broad 'general' mandate never implies these powers.

No — CC Art. 3026 makes Louisiana mandates durable by default: the mandatary's authority continues through the principal's incapacity or death until the mandatary knows, or should know, of it. No special 'durable' wording is required, unlike many common-law states.

The Code presumes co-mandataries may act separately, each independently binding the principal, unless the procuration requires them to act jointly — a frequent exam trap assumes joint action is always required.

A notarial testament (CC Arts. 1577-1580) is executed before a notary and two witnesses and is self-proving. An olographic testament must be entirely handwritten, dated, and signed by the testator alone — no notary or witnesses — and must later be proved by handwriting testimony in court.

Not for a testator who can read and sign — the testator simply declares it is their testament and signs each page. Reading aloud is required only when the testator cannot read (CC Art. 1579) — the exception, not the rule.

Available when the decedent's gross Louisiana estate is $125,000 or less at death, or regardless of value if the decedent has been dead 20+ years. The affidavit must be sworn by at least two persons of full age and notarized.

A child 23 years old or younger at the testator's death, or a child of any age permanently incapable of caring for themselves. A forced heir is entitled to a protected share (the legitime) that a will cannot eliminate except for narrow statutory 'just causes.'

One-fourth of the estate if there is one forced heir, one-half if there are two or more. A will leaving nothing to a qualifying forced heir is reducible to restore the legitime — Louisiana is the only state retaining this civil-law protection.

A usufruct is the right to use property and take its fruits, similar to a life estate; naked ownership is the residual interest that becomes full ownership when the usufruct ends. Louisiana surviving spouses commonly receive a usufruct over community property while children hold naked ownership.

Louisiana does not use 'real' and 'personal' property — everything is either immovable (land, buildings, standing timber, unharvested crops) or movable, the catch-all category. A tree is immovable while rooted but becomes a corporeal movable the moment it is cut.

Things permanently attached to a building so they cannot be removed without substantial damage — central HVAC, built-in cabinetry, plumbing/electrical fixtures — are treated as immovable. A window-unit AC that just sits in a sash stays movable.

Absent a marriage contract, Louisiana spouses are governed by this legal regime: most property acquired during the marriage — wages, purchases with community funds, and their fruits — is owned equally by both spouses regardless of whose name is on the title.

Both spouses (CC Art. 2347) — the concurrence of both is required to alienate, encumber, or lease a community immovable. A deed missing one spouse's signature is relatively null, and even the signing spouse's own half-interest can be attacked.

Property acquired during marriage is presumed community. To overcome the presumption, the deed must include a double declaration: that the funds used were separate AND that the property is acquired for the buyer's separate estate.

A Louisiana-specific remedy: the seller of a corporeal immovable may rescind the sale if the price is less than half (the moiety) of fair market value, within a 1-year peremptive period. Only the seller may claim it, and it cannot be waived in advance — even a renouncing seller may still invoke it.

All selling parties, then all purchasing parties, then the two witnesses, and the notary signs last — every signature must occur in the notary's presence for the act to remain authentic.

15 days after the act is passed, filed with the recorder of every parish where the immovable property is located. Louisiana places this recording duty affirmatively on the notary (R.S. 35:199), unlike most states where it's the client's responsibility.

48 hours after passage for an act of sale or transfer, filed with the custodian of notarial records and the register of conveyances — far shorter than the 15-day window that applies everywhere else in the state.

An instrument affecting immovable property has effect against third persons only from the moment it is filed for registry in the parish where the property sits — so a buyer who records second can lose priority to a later purchaser who records first.

Effective February 1, 2026, non-attorney notaries must carry a $50,000 surety bond (up from $10,000), and errors-and-omissions insurance is no longer accepted as a substitute. Attorneys remain exempt from the bond entirely.

A notary who passed the standardized written exam on or after June 13, 2005 may act in every parish in the state. Non-attorney notaries commissioned on or before that date without taking the exam are limited to their parish plus its reciprocal parishes.

A notary may act in any parish adjacent to their commission parish if that adjacent parish's population is under 40,000 — no new application or fee required. This is separate from, and narrower than, full statewide jurisdiction.

RON lets a signer appear by two-way audio-video, but any witness to the act must be physically present with the signer — witnesses may not appear by video. Because authentic acts require two present witnesses, a full authentic real estate closing cannot be completed purely by RON.

Non-attorney notaries must file an annual report by their commission anniversary (R.S. 35:202) or face automatic suspension after 60 days late; the surety bond separately renews every 5 years (R.S. 35:71). Missing either one suspends the commission even though it is granted for life.