Ark. Code Ann. § 21-14-111

Unlawful act — Penalty — Definition

Applied in 5 court decisions — leading case Merchants & Planters Bank & Trust Co. v. Massey (1990)

Most recently applied in Jones v. Owen (October 2009)

Acts 1989, No. 304, § 3; 2001, No. 1274, § 6.

How often courts cite this section

citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

(1) It is unlawful for any notary public to witness any signature on any instrument unless the notary public either: Witnesses the signing of the instrument and personally knows the signer or is presented proof of the identity of the signer; or

(2) Recognizes the signature of the signer by virtue of familiarity with the signature.

(3) Any notary public violating this section shall be guilty of a Class A misdemeanor.

(4) For purposes of this section, “personally knows” means having an acquaintance, derived from association with the individual, which establishes the individual's identity with at least a reasonable certainty.

Current official text: Arkansas General Assembly. Digitized from the UniCourt Code Improvement Commission public-domain capture. Reproduced from public-domain Arkansas statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.