5.5 Record Keeping and Audits

The Attorney General's Audit Power

In Hawaii the Attorney General (AG) — not a county clerk or a secretary of state — regulates notaries and holds broad oversight authority. The AG may audit or inspect a notary's records at any time, request copies, investigate complaints from the public, and verify compliance with HRS Chapter 456 and the administrative rules. Because the journal is admissible evidence, this audit power is the mechanism that keeps the recordkeeping rules in Chapter 5 meaningful.

Records Subject to Audit

The 90-Day Compliance Rule

When the AG requests an audit, the notary must comply within 90 days. This is the same 90-day clock used for surrendering a seal after a commission ends — a useful anchor, but do not confuse the two events. Failure to comply with an audit within 90 days is an administrative fine of not less than $50 and not more than $500.

Certified Copies of Journal Entries

A notary (or the AG) may issue certified copies of journal transactions at $5 per transaction. These are how a party later proves what was notarized.

Note the last row: the journal is not a public browsing record. A stranger cannot demand to leaf through it; access is limited to the parties above.

Records After Death, Resignation, or Expiration

If a notary dies, the personal representative (executor or administrator of the estate) must safeguard the records for the remaining retention period and ensure the seal is destroyed or disabled; notice to the AG is appropriate. On resignation or expiration, the journal must still be kept the full 10 years, the seal surrendered or disabled within 90 days, and the AG kept informed of current contact information.

Prohibited Conduct in an Audit

• Never destroy records before the 10-year retention period ends.
• Never refuse to cooperate with an AG audit — it triggers the $50–$500 fine.
• Never alter journal entries (that is evidence tampering) or give false statements (potential criminal liability).

Worked Scenario: Responding to an Audit Letter

A notary receives an AG letter requesting the journal in connection with a complaint about a deed. The correct response is to cooperate fully and within 90 days: produce the journal, do not alter or "clean up" any entries, and, if specific transactions are requested, provide certified copies at $5 each. The wrong responses — ignoring the letter, refusing access, or retroactively "fixing" an entry — convert a routine inquiry into fineable misconduct. Refusal triggers the $50–$500 non-compliance fine; altering entries is evidence tampering with potential criminal exposure far beyond any administrative fine.

The exam rewards the candidate who treats the audit as a defense opportunity, not a threat to hide from.

How the Pieces Fit Together

The audit power is the enforcement backbone for everything else in Chapter 5. The journal must be complete (Section 5.2) because the AG can demand it; the seal impression is on file at the Circuit Court (Section 5.3) because the AG and public must authenticate work; certificates must be proper (Section 5.4) because they are the records an audit examines. View the AG's any-time inspection authority as the reason the recordkeeping rules have teeth — a notary who keeps clean, contemporaneous, complete records has nothing to fear from an audit and everything to gain if a transaction is later challenged.

Death, Resignation, and Continuity of Records

The most-tested wrinkle is continuity. Records do not evaporate when a notary leaves office or dies. On death, the estate's personal representative steps into the safekeeping role for the remaining retention period and disables the seal. On resignation or expiration, the former notary personally keeps the journal for the full 10-year window. In every case the AG remains the authority that may request those records, and the certified-copy mechanism ($5 per transaction) remains the way third parties obtain proof of a past notarization.

Common Traps

1. Naming a county clerk or secretary of state as regulator — it is the Attorney General.
2. Choosing "30 days" for audit compliance — it is 90 days.
3. Thinking the public can browse the journal — access is restricted.
4. Assuming death ends the retention duty — the personal representative carries it forward.
5. "Fixing" a journal entry before an audit — that is evidence tampering, not compliance.