Notary Public
A Notary Public with thirty one years experience of providing notarial services to both individual and corporate clients, with a prompt service to clients to deal with all notarial requirements that may arise and which includes arranging for the affixing of an Apostille pursuant to the Hague Convention or Legalisation.
A Notary Public is a public officer constituted by law to serve the public in non-contentious matters usually concerned with foreign or international business.
A Notary Public is empowered by law and by custom and usage of notaries through the ages to:-
- Administer Oaths
- Attest Signatures
- Authenticate Documents
- Give Notarial Acts
- Take Affidavits (other than for the courts in Ireland)
- Take Affirmations and Declarations
- Receive and Make Protests under Mercantile Law
- Issue notarial certificates in respect of documents and persons.
- Draw up Powers of Attorney and other legal documents customarily prepared by Notaries Public
The acts of Notaries Public have worldwide recognition.
Apostille
An Apostille is a certificate issued by the Department of Foreign Affairs verifying the genuineness of the signature and/or seal of a public officer e.g. Notary Public, on a public document and the capacity in which he or she has acted.
The Apostille certificate may be stamped on or attached to the public document required to be apostilled. The Apostille procedure applies in lieu of Legalisation between countries that have signed and ratified or acceded to the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961. Ireland ratified the Convention in 1999.
Legalisation
Countries who have not acceded to and/or ratified the Hague Convention, require that documents be legalised.Legalisationis an internationally recognised procedure for certifying the authenticity of official signatures and/or official seal applied to a public document. It operates by means of an unbroken chain of verifying signatures commencing with that of the first signatory to the document and ending with the signature of the diplomatic or consular representative of the state in which the document is to produced and acted upon.
The legalisation procedure usually commences with the attestation by a Notary Public of the signature of a person to a formal document e.g. a Power of Attorney. The Notary Public having subscribed his or her name and affixed his or her official seal to the document by way of notarial act arranges for the document to be produced to the Registrar of the Supreme Court for the purpose of having the Notarys signature and official seal verified. The document is then produced at the Consular Section of the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin for the purpose of having the signature of the Supreme Court Registrar verified and finally it is produced to the diplomatic or consular representative in Dublin (or London) of the foreign country in which it is intended the document shall be produced for the purpose of having the Irish Consular Officers signature legalised. When all the foregoing steps have been completed, the document is said to have been legalised.