Notarial Services Q & A - Get your questions answered

· Tell me a little bit about your background in Notarial Services, for example how long have you been a practicing as a Notary Public?

I've been practising as a Notary Public since 2008, and so I've been quite a long time as a notary really. 15 years, which is quite surprising when I say it like that.

· What do you enjoy about your job?

I really enjoy meeting the people. I also enjoy the paperwork. The action of pressing down the press to put the seal onto the paper is always a nice feeling, and a little bit of exercise for me, in what, normally, is quite a sedentary job.

· Why did you decide to become a notary?

Well, what happened there was, I met a bloke called Simon. He was already a notary and he said why don't you think about becoming a notary, and I asked what was involved. He said all you need to do is read a book and then do a couple of tests and there you are you can be calling yourself a notary. So, I looked a little bit into it, and I realised that Simon had been a bit flippant in what he'd been saying. In fact, to become a notary I had to do a two-year part-time course and travel to Cambridge twice to do some quite heavy exams. Also, there was a lot of course work to do; there were a lot of books to read and a lot of hard work to do. But I'm pleased to say, I passed the course, and I duly became a Notary Public.

· How has your industry developed over the time that you have been a notary?

There's been a lot of changes, really. For example, I won't reel off all the different changes to the notary practise rules and to the money laundering regulations. But, there has been a lot of changes over the years in the way that we practise, because people used to come and see me, and they were expecting me to produce a notarised copy of a document, for example, and I'll often be called upon to do that, perhaps, over a period of time rather than being called upon to do it, whilst they wait. Most people have become more impatient now, they like to have the things done, while they wait, really. There's been a lot of changes in terms of the way that we keep records, as well, and we’re more electronically based now, whereas, in the past, people used to phone or even call into the office. Now a lot of contact is on e-mail or via other social media sites.

· Do you think that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will have an impact on your work in the future?

Well, it's a good question and we're always assessing what might come next, in the future. To be fair, I'm not sure that AI will have that much impact on my work, as a notary, currently, because the work of a notary is a personal contact with actual people. There’s no real necessity for a computer to be involved, although, we do use computers, obviously, to communicate, and to draft the documents. I suppose looking at things in the round, it might be that the AI set up might help perhaps with drafting of notarial certificates. But I doubt that any notary will want trust that, and we always want to check notarial certificates, before we print, sign, and seal them. So, in that sense, I'm not sure that AI is going to have a massive impact on our work as notaries, but you never know where it's going to end up.