3.6 Notarial Certificates

The Governing Rule

Under Hawaii Administrative Rules (HAR) Section 5-11-8, every acknowledgment or jurat must be evidenced by a certificate signed and dated by the notary public. The certificate is what survives in the record — if it is wrong or incomplete, the act can be challenged.

Required Certificate Information

Hawaii's rule is more specific than many states. In addition to the date and the notary's signature, the certificate must show:

The page count and document date are Hawaii-specific touches that exam writers love, because notaries from other states routinely forget them.

Attaching the Certificate

The certificate must be attached to or made part of the document. If it appears on a separate loose page, that page must be securely bound to the document (and best practice is to reference the document on the loose certificate to prevent it being moved to another document).

Wording Must Match the Act

Acknowledgment certificate (example)

STATE OF HAWAII, County of ____

On this ___ day of __, 20, before me personally appeared ____, to me known (or proved on the basis of satisfactory evidence) to be the person whose name is subscribed to the within instrument, and acknowledged that he/she/they executed it in his/her/their authorized capacity for the purpose stated.

Jurat certificate (example)

STATE OF HAWAII, County of ____

Subscribed and sworn to (or affirmed) before me on this ___ day of __, 20, by ____.

Notice the difference: the acknowledgment says "acknowledged that he/she executed"; the jurat says "subscribed and sworn to (or affirmed)." Using the wrong block defeats the act.

Remote Online Notarization Certificates

For an act performed using communication technology under HRS 456-23, the certificate must add a statement substantially as:

"This notarial act involved the use of communication technology."

This flags the notarization as remote and is required in addition to the normal content.

Correcting Certificate Errors

Never:

• Use white-out or correction fluid.
• Leave any blank in a certificate.
• Pre-sign or pre-stamp a certificate before the act.
• Backdate (or post-date) — the date must be the date the act actually occurred.

Best Practices Checklist

1. Complete all blanks (including page count and document date) before signing.
2. Use permanent ink for your signature.
3. Apply the seal so every element is readable and not over text.
4. Match the certificate to the act actually performed.
5. Bind the certificate securely to the document.

Worked Example

You take a jurat on a 3-page affidavit dated June 1. Your certificate must show "State of Hawaii," the county, the date you administered the oath (the date of the act, not necessarily June 1), the affiant's name in the 'subscribed and sworn to (or affirmed)' block, your signature, printed name, commission expiration, seal, the document's date (June 1), and the page count (3). Leaving the page count blank violates HAR 5-11-8.

Common Traps

• Forgetting the page count and document date required in Hawaii.
• Reusing an acknowledgment block for a jurat (or vice versa).
• Dating the certificate with the document's date instead of the act's date.

The Certificate Is the Legal Output

Everything the notary does — appearance, identification, oath, signing — exists to support one durable artifact: the certificate. Years later, a court or title examiner cannot interview the notary about a closing; it reads the certificate. If the certificate omits a required element, recites the wrong act, or contains a blank, the notarization can be attacked, and the underlying transaction (a property transfer, a sworn filing) can be unwound. This is why Hawaii's specificity — printed name, seal, jurisdiction, document identification, page count, and document date — is not bureaucratic clutter but the evidentiary backbone of the act.

Loose vs. Embedded Certificates

Many documents include a printed certificate block; the notary simply completes it. When a document has no certificate, or has the wrong one, the notary may attach a loose certificate — but two cautions apply:

The notary chooses an acknowledgment or jurat form to match the act, but does not decide for the signer what they are attesting to.

Seal and Signature Discipline

The official stamp or seal must be applied so that every element — the notary's name, commission number, and "Notary Public, State of Hawaii" — is legible and not smeared over the certificate text. The notary signs in permanent ink exactly as the name appears on the commission. A certificate signed but unstamped, or stamped over its own date, invites rejection.

Dates: Three Different Ones

A single notarization can involve three dates, and confusing them is a classic error:

1. The date of the notarial act — when you administered the oath or took the acknowledgment. This is the certificate's controlling date.
2. The date of the document — the date the instrument itself bears, which Hawaii requires you to record on the certificate.
3. The commission expiration date — when your authority ends.

The certificate's act date must be the true date you performed the act; never backdate to match a document or post-date for convenience. A 2-page acknowledgment dated June 13 for a document dated June 1 shows both dates and a page count of 2.

Common Traps

• Leaving the page count or document date blank — a direct HAR 5-11-8 violation.
• Using correction fluid instead of a single-line correction with initials and date.
• Reusing one certificate's wording for a different act, or pre-stamping certificates before the act occurs.