Signature Witnessing on Documents

Signature witnessing is the act of confirming a person's signature on a particular document (such as a power of attorney, a will, a statutory declaration of marital status, or other documents) in order to attest to the authenticity of that signature.

For a Notary Public to witness your signature, you must sign the document in the notary's presence, as they are required to have you take an oath or affirmation before signing. The most common mistake we see clients make is arriving to meet the Notary Public with the document already signed. As a general rule, it is best to bring an unsigned, draft version of the document and wait until the Notary Public tells you that you may sign it in their presence.

Having a person's signature witnessed by a Notary Public on a document helps guarantee the legal validity of a transaction or instrument. In many legal disputes, where contracts are entered into by parties thousands of kilometres apart, a notary serves the useful function of eliminating certain risks associated with agreements made at a distance. For example, if one party to a contract can show that they never actually signed the disputed contract, the other party will have great difficulty proving its legal validity, which could result in the contract being declared void.

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