A blank stays blank

Bring the document complete. The signatures that have to be made in front of me can wait until the appointment. Everything else should already be filled in: the names, the amounts, the dates that belong in the body, and every page that is part of the document.

A blank in the terms of the document means it is not ready. I will not fill it in. I will not tell you what belongs there. If you know what to write, you may complete it yourself before I perform the act. If you do not know, ask the person or the office that prepared the document, or ask an attorney. I am not an attorney, and I do not draft documents or give legal advice.

An empty signature line is different. If the certificate says the signer signs in my presence, that line stays empty until then. Government Code § 406.0091 requires the signer to appear. Do not sign a jurat the night before and then ask me to treat it as if I watched. If the act is an acknowledgment, you may have signed earlier, and you acknowledge that signature in front of me. The certificate already printed on the page tells me which act it is. I do not choose a different one for you.

If the document is incomplete and it stays incomplete, I do not perform the act. There is no charge. That includes a missing page, a blank the signer cannot complete, and a document the signer does not appear to understand.

I do not notarize a page that still has a material blank for someone else to fill in after I leave. The certificate attaches to the document as it stands at the appointment, not to a later version of it.