“Pursuant to Texas House Bill 1683, effective as of January 1, 2016, all Texas notary seals must include an identifying number issued by the Texas Secretary of State’s Office.” The new requirements will only apply to notaries that are commissioned by the State of Texas and will not be applicable to notaries that are commissioned in other states. Failure to apply a notary seal could make the seal worthless and expose the documents to claims of insufficient authorization which could potentially render those documents worthless. “A notary’s identifying number can be found by running a search for their name at the Secretary of State’s Notary Search page.” Notaries should contact the bonding or supply company that issued their existing seal and request a new one that contains their identification number.
See Peter M. Oxman and Shima Jalalipour, Texas Notary Seals Must Include State-Issued Identification Number as of January 1, 2016, Seyfarth Shaw LLP, January 11, 2016.
Special thanks to Brian Cohan (Attorney at Law, Law Offices of Brian J. Cohan, P.C.) for bringing this article to my attention.
