Change in Procedure Leading to the Appointment of Notaries Public
Up to now, there has been an obligation on an applicant to show to the satisfaction of the chief justice that the appointment was needed to meet the exigencies or demands of business and commerce in the place for which the appointment was sought.
This need was established by reference to a number of criteria, including population growth, new industries and so on, and the numbers and availability of notaries in the area, and was quite separate from the questions of the applicant’s fitness to perform the duties of a notary public, the availability of a public office, and so on.
The chief justice has now made an order that the requirement for an applicant to show ‘need’ no longer applies. This does not in any way affect the requirement for an applicant to satisfy the faculty, for the purposes of order 127 of the Rules of the superior courts, that he/she has a sufficient knowledge of notarial matters and procedures and of the particular legal provisions applicable to notarial matters in order to be a competent and efficient person to carry out the duties of a notary public if so appointed.