3.1 Types of Notarial Acts

What a Notarial Act Is

Under Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS) Chapter 456, a notarial act is an official act a notary public is authorized to perform to deter fraud and lend public credibility to a document. The notary is a neutral, impartial witness. The notary never certifies that a document is true, legal, or that the signer told the truth — only the specific facts the certificate recites, such as that the signer personally appeared and was identified.

The Acts a Hawaii Notary May Perform

The Hawaii Attorney General's Notary Public Manual recognizes these core acts. Memorize the purpose column; the exam phrases questions around purpose, not labels.

Copy certification of private documents is sometimes requested, but Hawaii's fee statute and manual treat the notary's copy/certificate authority narrowly — never certify copies of records that are only issued as certified copies by a government office (covered in 3.5).

Personal Appearance Is Non-Negotiable

For every act, the signer (or affiant) must appear before the notary at the time the act is performed. "Appear" means physically present for traditional notarization, or live two-way audio-video for a notary holding a Remote Online Notarization (RON) authorization under HRS 456-23. A notary may never notarize:

• A signature on a document mailed in or dropped off without the signer present.
• A signature for a spouse, friend, or co-worker "to save them a trip."
• A document where the signer is on the phone (audio only) rather than on compliant audio-video technology.

Violating personal appearance is the fact pattern most likely to produce real-world liability and is a favorite exam trap.

Elements Common to All Acts

1. Personal appearance of the signer/affiant.
2. Positive identification — personal knowledge or satisfactory evidence (a current government photo ID).
3. Willingness — the signer is not under visible duress or coercion.
4. Awareness — the signer appears to understand what they are signing.
5. A completed notarial certificate matching the act performed.
6. The notary's signature, official stamp/seal, and the date.
7. A record-book (journal) entry under HRS 456-15.

Matching the Situation to the Act

Common Trap

The signer or the document's wording — not the notary — drives the choice. If preprinted certificate language says "subscribed and sworn," it is a jurat and requires an oath; "acknowledged before me" is an acknowledgment. A notary who guesses or substitutes one for another can void the document. When the document has no certificate at all, the notary may attach the correct loose certificate but must never decide what the signer is attesting to.

Why the Distinctions Matter in Practice

The acts are not interchangeable because each protects a different fact. An acknowledgment protects the identity and voluntariness of a signature, which is why title companies and the bureau of conveyances require it on recordable instruments — a forged or coerced deed transfers no good title. A jurat protects the truth of the contents, which is why courts require it on affidavits — a sworn lie is perjury, prosecutable on its own. Signature witnessing protects only the event of signing.

If a notary substitutes the wrong act, the document may be rejected for recording, thrown out as evidence, or expose the notary to liability for negligence.

What a Notary Never Does

Notaries in Hawaii are not attorneys and the manual is emphatic about staying in the lane. A non-attorney notary must not:

• Decide which notarial act a customer needs when the document has no preprinted certificate and the customer cannot say. The notary may explain the difference between an acknowledgment and a jurat in neutral terms but must let the signer (or the document's drafter) choose.
• Prepare, select, or correct the substance of a legal document, or advise on its effect.
• Notarize a document in a language the notary cannot read well enough to identify the type of certificate — though the signer may sign in any language.

A Quick Decision Walkthrough

When a document lands on the desk, the notary runs a short mental checklist:

1. Is the signer here and identifiable? If not, stop.
2. What does the certificate language say? "Acknowledged before me" versus "subscribed and sworn" answers the act question instantly.
3. If there is no certificate, what does the signer want to attest? A genuine, voluntary signature points to an acknowledgment; the truth of the statements points to a jurat.
4. Does the act require witnessing the signing or an oath? Jurats need both; acknowledgments need neither; signature witnessing needs only the witnessing.
5. Record it. Every act, including protests and depositions, goes in the record book at length.

Mastering this checklist makes the rest of Chapter 3 mechanical, because each later section simply fills in the procedure for one branch of the tree. On the exam, the wrong-act fact pattern ("the customer brings a pre-signed affidavit and asks for a jurat") recurs in many disguises; the safe answer always returns to which fact the act is supposed to protect.