Here’s an alarming little story from the Times. It illustrates something about notarization of signatures and supports why, even when I’m signing my name to a document and will be getting it notarized in my lawyer’s office, I don’t sign until I am literally there, in front of the person who will be notarizing my signature.
I wouldn’t put any notary — even someone who knows me well — in the position of swearing that the signature belongs to me without witnessing me signing it.
Read on, if you want a view of an awful witness — and awful not for the plaintiff, but for the defendants, in this case the City of New York. It just smells like sleaze.
And I didn’t know that having someone else sign a document in your name, and having that signature notarized as yours, is not just a civil no-no but is a criminal act.