Certified copy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A certified copy is a copy (often a photocopy) of a filed document, legal or other, in its entirety (everything within a staple) that is sworn to be a true copy by a court clerk or solicitor. If the staple is removed then the copy loses its certified status.
As part of "know your customer" banking regulations most U.S. financial institutions now require a certified copy of a passport when new accounts are opened. This would normally entail a copy of the pages containing one's name, photograph, passport number and date of birth.
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[edit] Copy certification by U.S. notaries
Some states in the United States permit notaries public to certify copies; the laws or officials who regulate notaries should be consulted for details. The U.S. State Department in 2005 compiled a table summarizing the state laws and regulations.[1]In the table below, notes from the State Department table have been omitted for states that do not authorize notaries to certify copies.
| U.S. State | Certification of true copies permitted? | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | Yes | ||
| Alaska | No | ||
| American Samoa | |||
| Arizona | Yes | ||
| Arkansas | Yes | ||
| California | Yes | Only powers of attorney and notary journal pages. | |
| Colorado | Yes | Only with signed written request stating certified copy not available from the officer of any recorder of public documents or other custodian of documents in the state. | |
| Connecticut | No | ||
| Delaware | Yes | ||
| District of Columbia | Yes | ||
| Florida | Yes | Only with supervised photocopying. A notary may supervise the making of a photocopy of an original document and attest to the trueness of the copy. F.S.A. § 117.05(15). A notary cannot attest to the trueness of a photocopy; only photocopies of original documents may be attested as to trueness F.S.A. §117.05(15)(a). A notary cannot attest to the trueness of a photocopy of a public record if a copy can be made by another public official. F.S.A. §117.05(15)a | |
| Georgia | Yes | Only with supervised photocopying. | |
| Guam | |||
| Hawaii | Yes | Only protests and notary journal pages | |
| Idaho | Yes | ||
| Illinois | No | ||
| Indiana | No | ||
| Iowa | Yes | ||
| Kansas | Yes | ||
| Kentucky | Yes | Only protests | |
| Louisiana | No | ||
| Maine | No | ||
| Maryland | YES | Only register pages | |
| Massachusetts | No | ||
| Michigan | No | ||
| Minnesota | Yes | ||
| Mississippi | No | ||
| Missouri | Yes | ||
| Montana | Yes | Only records issued or filed on the job. | |
| Nebraska | No | ||
| Nevada | Yes | ||
| New Hampshire | No | ||
| New Jersey | No | ||
| New Mexico | Yes | ||
| New York | No | ||
| North Carolina | No | ||
| Northern Mariana Islands | |||
| Ohio | No | ||
| Oklahoma | Yes | ||
| Oregon | Yes | Notaries are not permitted to certify copies of public documents, especially vital statistics. There is a regulation of the Health Records Division that specifically prohibits copying their records. The prohibition is not in the notary law, but in the law of the custodian of records. Oregon would allow an affidavit attesting to a true copy by the bearer, but the notary should encourage the bearer to get the real certified copy from the custodian of record. | |
| Pennsylvania | Yes | ||
| Puerto Rico | |||
| Rhode Island | No | ||
| South Carolina | No | ||
| South Dakota | No | ||
| Tennessee | No | ||
| Texas | A notary may not notarize a certified true copy of a recordable document. Birth certificates and marriage licenses are recordable documents. A recordable document is one that is recorded with some type of entity whether it be the Secretary of State's Office, a court of law, a county clerk, or the Bureau of Vital Statistics. Certified copies may be obtained by contacting such entities. A non-recordable document is one that has not been nor will ever be recorded with any type of entity. For instance, a letter is not recorded with anyone but there are times the sender of the letter would like to obtain a certified copy of that letter for his or her file. | ||
| Utah | Yes | Only if custodian of original appears. | |
| Vermont | Yes | ||
| Virgin Islands | |||
| Virginia | Yes | Virginia notaries are not authorized to certify true copies of birth, death, or marriage certificates. Only the Division of Vital Records/Statistics may perform such a certification. | |
| Washington | Yes | ||
| West Virginia | Yes | ||
| Wisconsin | Yes | ||
| Wyoming | No |
Notaries in many states keep journals of all their notarial acts. The table shows that in some states notaries may make certified copies of their journals but may not make any other kind of certified copies.
[edit] Notarial Wording
Not all certified copies are prepared by notaries. In the case of certified copies by notaries, the certificate itself is subject to highly variable wording. In the U.S.:
- I, A.B., a notary public, do certify that on DATE, I carefully compared the attached copy of DOCUMENT with the original. It is a complete and true copy of the original document.
- I certify that this is a true and correct copy of a document in the possession of A.B. (NH)
- On this DD day of MONTH, YYYY I certify that the ______ document is a true, exact, complete and unaltered copy of the original. (Mass)
- On this DD day of MONTH, YYYY, I hereby certify (1) that the foregoing [or attached] document is an accurate and unaltered copy of NAME OF DOC, presented to me by A.B., the document's custodian, and (2) that, to the best of my knowledge, the copied document is neither a public record nor publicly recorded. (Utah)
- I, (name & quality of attestor), certify that the foregoing is a true and faithful copy of the original (this day exhibited to me), the same having been carefully examined by me and compared with the said original and found to agree therewith word for word and figure for figure. (US Consulate or Embassy)
Outside the U.S.:
- Australia
- I certify this (and the following ____ pages each of which I have signed/initialled) to be a true copy of the document shown and reported to me as the original.
- Canada
- I certify that this photocopy is a true and faithful copy of the original, and that it has been carefully examined by me, compared with the said original, and found to agree with it word for word and figure for figure. (NW Territories)
- ...certify that the photostatic reproduction annexed hereto is a true copy of the NAME OF DOC dated DATE of CUSTODIAN'S NAME and that I have carefully compared the said photostatic reproduction with the said original document. (Toronto)
- ...DO HEREBY CERTIFY that the paper writing hereunto annexed, each page of which is stamped with an impression of my seal, is a true and correct photostatic copy of a document produced and shown to me out of the custody of CUSTODIAN and purporting to be NAME OF DOC., dated the DD day of Month, YYYY, the said photostatic copy having been compared by me, page for page, with the said original document, an act whereof being requested I have granted the same under my Notarial form and seal of office to serve and avail as occasion shall or may require. IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF... (notarial copy)
- England
- ...CERTIFY that the document hereunto annexed is a true [photographic] copy of the original document of which it purports to be a copy, I having carefully collated and compared the said copy with the said original and found the same to agree therewith. IN FAITH AND TESTIMONY whereof...
[edit] References
- ^ U.S. Department of State. (2005). Foreign Affairs Handbook Volume 7 — Consular Affairs. Available from http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/86735.pdf
- ^ Ala. Code 36-20-5(2)empowers notarys to "Take the acknowledgment or proof of instruments of writing relating to commerce or navigation and certify the same and all other of their official acts under their seal of office."
