Civil law notary

Civil law notaries are trained jurists who often receive the same training as advocating jurists, i.e. those with a legal education who become litigators such as barristers in the United Kingdom or les avocats of France.

Notaries are usually limited to areas of private law, i.e. that law which resolves between private individuals and involves minimal, if no, state intervention. The most common areas of practice for notaries are in property conveyancing and registration, contract drafting, commercial transactions, successions and other estate related matters. They usually have no authority to appear before tribunals on behalf of their clients. In some jurisdictions such as France they also maintain the official registration of property records, en minute (in minute form).

In New York State there is an attempt to pass a law prohibiting notaries public from listing themselves as Notario Publico because individuals from Spanish speaking countries may confuse notaries public, who are only required to pass a short multiple choice test, with the individuals in their home countries who are usually the most knowledgable professionals with years of advanced legal training qualified to give complex legal opinion and draft sophisticated legal texts.