When drafting a contract, you may be fine with just having yourself and the other party sign it. However, if a dispute arises, you may wish that you had the signatures notarized. Notarization, according to Entrepreneur, gives you some legal protection that you will not have if your contract is not notarized.
It may be smart if you create contracts often to ensure that someone within your business is a notary or you have easy access to a notary when you need one. You can then easily get every contract notarized without causes delays or other issues. Having that notarization offers you a few benefits.
Gives you some insurance
Having a notary validate the signatures on your contract also binds the notary and his or her insurance company to uphold that notarization. Should a dispute occur over the validity of the signatures and the court finds they are invalid, the notary’s insurance company is liable for damages you incur as a result of the notary not verifying signatures before putting his or her seal on the contract.
Dispute denials
If the other person tries to say he or she did not sign the contract, you have evidence that is not true. A notary seal will stand up in court and serve as clear and convincing evidence that both parties signed the contract. You will save time and money by having that seal on your contract because, without it, you would then have to prove the signature is legitimate. Furthermore, having a notarized contract means the court will usually accept it as valid without further requirements to prove validity.
