5.2 Journal Requirements

The Legal Rule vs. the Best Practice

Connecticut is one of the minority of states that does not legally require a notary to keep a journal of notarial acts. This is true for both in-person and remote online notarizations. However, the Office of the Secretary of the State describes keeping a journal as its "very strong recommendation." Exam questions exploit the gap between "not required" and "strongly recommended" — the correct answer is almost always "not required by law, but recommended."

Think of the journal as malpractice insurance you write yourself: it costs minutes per signing and can save you in court.

Why a Journal Matters

If a notarial act is later challenged — a forged signature, a claim the signer never appeared, an allegation of coercion — the notary may be the only neutral witness. Memory fades; a contemporaneous record does not.

What to Record in Each Entry

The Secretary of the State's manual and standard best practice call for a chronological entry per act containing at minimum:

• Date and time of the act
• Type of notarial act (acknowledgment, jurat, oath/affirmation, copy certification)
• Type or title of the document
• Signer's name and address
• Method of identification (personal knowledge or the ID type, issuer, and expiration)
• Fee charged, if any
• Signature of the signer in the journal (a thumbprint is optional and used mainly for high-value real-estate signings)

Format: Bound Beats Loose-Leaf

The manual recommends a bound book specifically so that pages cannot be removed or substituted — an integrity feature that loose-leaf binders cannot match.

Remote Notarization Records

For remote online acts, good practice adds detail the in-person journal would not capture:

• The signer's location during the session
• The communication technology/platform used
• Whether the audio-visual recording was retained, and where it is stored

Worked Scenario

A notary acknowledges a power of attorney for a client she has never met. Two years later the client's heirs allege the signature was forged. Because she logged the date, the document, the driver's license number and expiration, and had the signer sign her bound journal, she can produce a single page showing exactly who appeared and how she identified them. Without that entry, she would be relying on memory — a far weaker defense. This is precisely why the state pushes the journal so hard despite not mandating it.

How a Journal Differs From the Certificate

Candidates sometimes confuse the journal with the notarial certificate. The certificate — the acknowledgment or jurat wording that goes on the document itself — is part of the act and travels with the paper to the recipient. The journal is the notary's private, retained record of the act and stays with the notary. The certificate proves the act to the document's recipient; the journal proves the act to a future court or investigator. They serve different audiences, and keeping a journal never excuses an incomplete certificate, nor does a complete certificate eliminate the value of a journal.

A well-run notary maintains both: correct certificate wording on every document, and a contemporaneous journal entry for the notary's own protection.

Practical Habits That Make a Journal Useful

A journal only helps if it is filled out consistently and at the time of the act, not reconstructed later. Adopt a few disciplined habits. First, complete the entry before the signer leaves, so you capture the identification details while the ID is in front of you. Second, never leave blank lines between entries in a bound book — chronological, gap-free entries are harder to dispute. Third, record the specific identification: not merely "driver's license," but the issuing state and the document's expiration, since an expired ID is a red flag you want documented either way.

Fourth, if you decline an act — for example, the signer could not be properly identified or appeared coerced — log the refusal too; a documented refusal can be as protective as a documented act. These habits convert a journal from a formality into genuine evidence.

Common Traps

• "Connecticut requires a journal" — false; it is recommended, not required by law.
• "A journal is only needed for real estate" — the recommendation covers all acts.
• "Loose-leaf is fine" — the manual prefers a bound book to prevent page substitution.
• "The certificate and the journal are the same record" — false; the certificate goes on the document, the journal stays with the notary.