Part 2, Section 6
Safeguarding Your Seal and Journal

Your seal and journal are very valuable items, and should be treated as such.  These items falling into the wrong hands can cause a great deal of trouble for you as well as others. Therefore, you are required to keep your seal and journal in a locked and secured area, and you should never allow anyone access to them.

Remember, there is a great deal of information in your journal, such as people’s names, addresses, and driver license numbers, as well as private information regarding their legal affairs.  Should you or anyone else intentionally deface, destroy or conceal your notarial journal or any of your notarial records, that person is guilty of a misdemeanor and may also be liable for civil damages.  There is a four-year statute of limitations on this crime.
Government Code § 8221

If your journal is stolen, lost, destroyed, damaged, or otherwise rendered unusable, you must immediately notify the Secretary of State by certified or registered mail.  This notification must include the period of time of the journal entries, your commission number, the expiration date of your commission, and, if it was stolen, a photocopy of any police report taken.
Government Code § 8206(b)

The loss of your journal is a very serious matter.  If you do not report the theft or loss of your journal, your notary commission may be suspended or revoked. 

Your journal is your property and you must not surrender it to anyone, with the following exceptions:

·     The County Clerk of the county where you filed your oath (if you resign or are removed from office);

·     A peace officer who is investigating a criminal offense.  If your journal is requested by a peace officer, you must surrender your journal immediately or as soon as possible if the journal is not present. The officer is then required to notify the Secretary of State’s office within 24 hours or as soon as possible of the name of the notary public whose journal was seized.   You must obtain a receipt for the journal, and notify the Secretary of State by certified mail within 10 days that the journal was relinquished to a peace officer. The notification shall include the period of the journal entries, the commission number of the notary public, the expiration date of the commission, and a photocopy of the receipt. Government Code § 8206(d)

If your journal is lost, stolen, destroyed, unusable, or taken by a peace officer, you must obtain a new journal before you can perform any more notary acts.  If or when the old journal is returned to you, do not make any more entries in it, except to note the fact that a new journal had been obtained and the date the new journal starts.

There can be severe penalties involved if you do not follow these procedures regarding your journal.  You would be guilty of a misdemeanor if you do any of the following improper acts:

• Willfully fail to properly maintain your notarial journal
• Willfully fail to notify the Secretary of State if your notarial journal is lost, stolen, rendered unusable, or surrendered to a peace officer
• Willfully fail to permit a lawful inspection or copying of your notarial journal

Government Code § 8228.1

Also, no one can force you to make journal entries that conflict with notarial laws.  If someone solicits, coerces, or in any way influences you to improperly maintain your notarial journal, that person is guilty of a misdemeanor.  There is a four-year statute of limitations on this crime.

Government Code § 8225
 

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