I have quoted Volker G. Heinz here before in connection with notaries.

I find a 2001 report of a UINL (Internationale Union des Lateinischen Notariats) conference in Greece where he mentions the civil-law notaries in the USA:

bq. Ein Erlebnis war für mich die Reise nach Athen fast allein wert: die Entdeckung des “Civil Law Notary” in den USA. Wahrend der amerikanische “Notary Public” im wesentlichen Beglaubigungs- und Bescheinigungsfunktionen ausübt und vor allem fast durchgängig ohne allgemeine juristische Vorbildung ist, haben die
US-Staaten Florida und Alabama (neben Puerto Rico) den Notar nach lateinischem Vorbild, also den Civil Law Notary eingeführt. Seine Dienstleistungen entsprechen denen seiner EU-
europäischen Notarskollegen, konzentrieren sich also auf Beurkundungen, allerdings ohne Dienstleistungsmonopol: insoweit stehen die Civil Law Notaries in direkter Konkurrenz mit den örtlichen attorneys. Die Urkunden der Civil Law Notaries haben erhöhten Beweiswert vor Gericht, ja sie können auch für vollstreckbar erklärt werden – eine ebenso überraschende wie verständliche Entwicklung im offensichtlich allmählich prozeß- weil kostenmüden Kernland exzessiver gerichtlicher Auseinandersetzungen. Gerne werde ich dazu mehr ausführen, sobald mir nähere schriftliche Informationen vorliegen.

One factoid I picked up from Barbara Müller-Grant at the seminar on Saturday was that there are now civil-law notaries in Florida – and apparently in Alabama too. Web searches reveal a fair amount of information. These people are trained lawyers who do a course giving 18 hours, for example, of credits for CLE (continuing legal education – Weiterbildung). I think the first exam was held in March 2003.

They can help residents buy and sell land abroad – for instance, in Germany or in Brazil.

The National Association of Civil Law Notaries was founded in 1998. The site gives links to materials in English and German (and French and Spanish). Its links inside the USA also include Louisiana. Its links outside the USA

The Louisiana law refers to notaries public. But the new civil-law notaries in Alabama and Florida don’t use the word ‘public’.

The Louisiana code extract is in English. The Alabama extract appears in English, French and Spanish. But the Florida version appears in Spanish, French and German. The translations are interesting, in view of the fact that we sometimes have to translate German notarial boilerplate into English.

Unlike ‘notary public’, the term ‘civil-law notary’ is permitted to be translated into other languages. See also Wikipedia on this. Continue reading →

Here is a nice list of all the things a notary public in Florida is not allowed to do, at the Florida Governor’s Office.

bq. Translate the phrase “Notary Public” into a language other than English in an advertisement for notarial services. §117.05(11).
Attest to the trueness of a photocopy of a public record if a copy can be made by another public official. §117.05(12)(a).
Use a name or initial in signing certificates other than that by which the notary public is commissioned. §117.107(1).
Sign a blank form of affidavit or certificate of acknowledgment. §117.107(3).
Take the acknowledgment of a person who is blind until the notary public has read the instrument to such person. §117.107(5).
Take the acknowledgment of a person who does not speak or understand the English language, unless the nature and effect of the instrument to be notarized is translated into a language which the person does understand. §117.107(6).
Change anything in a written instrument after it has been signed by anyone. §117.107(7).
Other prohibited acts:
Do not notarize a photograph.
Do not notarize a copy of a birth certificate, or any other vital record or public record.
Do not certify a translation of a document from one language into another.

It seems that translating the term notary public into Spanish in particular may inflate the importance of the job.

On Saturday 12th July I spent the day in Munich at a seminar on translating contracts (I’m not sure how long that link will continue to work) held by Barbara Müller-Grant, a U.S. interpreter and translator from Wiesbaden. She doesn’t seem to have a website (yes she has), but can be found in the database at www.bdue.de. There were at least three Austrians there, two of whom had come specially from Vienna. Hence the question as to how to ‘translate’ the Austrian court names into English – I will deal with that soon in a separate entry, but I did start by listing resources for Austrian law.

There were about 30 people in the audience. Most of the time we had a general discussion based on a number of authentic German and (U.S.) English documents.

I don’t intend to appropriate all the material in that seminar, but one or two interesting things came up. I made a list and intend to research some of the questions that occurred to me.

On Saturday 12th July I spent the day in Munich at a seminar on translating contracts (I’m not sure how long that link will continue to work) held by Barbara Müller-Grant, a U.S. interpreter and translator from Wiesbaden. She doesn’t seem to have a website (yes she has), but can be found in the database at www.bdue.de. There were at least three Austrians there, two of whom had come specially from Vienna. Hence the question as to how to ‘translate’ the Austrian court names into English – I will deal with that soon in a separate entry, but I did start by listing resources for Austrian law.

There were about 30 people in the audience. Most of the time we had a general discussion based on a number of authentic German and (U.S.) English documents.

I don’t intend to appropriate all the material in that seminar, but one or two interesting things came up. I made a list and intend to research some of the questions that occurred to me.

Sometimes a dictionary just isn’t enough.

Thanks to Steve Tomlin for this one. He took it somewhere in Germany (Google reveals a reference to the same error on a bin at Saarbrücken Zoo).