NOTARY PUBLIC

     Mexico belongs to the group of countries that has a legal system based on the Roman Law and in these countries, a Notary Public must be a highly specialized professional attorney. On one hand, the Notary Public must act as an impartial legal consultant of the persons requiring his services and, on the other, as the permanent and careful guardian of the legal authority that has been conferred to him.

     Lawyers who apply written law and not customary law should be in charge of the Latin, as well as the Mexican Notary Public’s office. We can say that the following are the characteristics of a Latin Notary Public:

a) He is an advisor to the parties;
b) He interprets the intention of the parties;
c) He words, reads and explains the document;
d) He authorizes the instrument, providing the State’s recognition to the act;
e) He keeps the instrument;
f) He reproduces the instrument; and
g) The duration of his commission is indefinite.


     The notarial instrument is his great work, his final cause; it is such as the sentence is for a judge on the law for a legislator. In executing a notarial or public deed.

     The Notary public will attest:

• That he knows the identity of the participants and that they have legal capacity to contract.
• In case of foreigners, that they show their legal internment into Mexico, with the migratory document issued by the Mexican migratory authorities, in effect at the time of the deed’s date.
• In order for the foreigner to have legal capacity to acquire, he will be required o show the necessary permit issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the trust contract or the sales contract.
• Notaries are required by law to insert in the documents which they prepare the existence of any permission from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
• That the notary reads to the participants, as well as to any witnesses or translators present, the text of the deed or that the participants themselves read it.
• That the notary explains to the participants, the value and legal consequences of he contents of the deed.
• That the parties to the deed manifested before the notary their consent and acceptance of the deed and that they signed it.

     Anglosaxon notaries do not have the authority or the obligations of a Latin notary. It is worthwhile recalling that COMMON LAW does not recognize the authentic document and its efficiency as legal authority. A Notary Public can be only considered as a “qualified witness” in this COMMON LAW system and his actions are limited to:

     1) Attesting that a person set his hand unto a document and that he identified it; and
     2) An Anglosaxon Notary Public does not word the document, nor go to bottom of the issue; he does not guard the legality of the act (this is a matter of the courts, without any prior juridical protection, besides preparing agreements, which many times is done in a biased way). The Notary Public’s commission is temporary and lacks professional raining; he does not provide consulting services to the parties, nor does he keep the original copies or matrix of the documents.

     In Sonora, Notary Publics are Attorneys at Law that have a Notary Public patent, issued bye the State’s Executive Power and pursuant to the law, n exercise of his functions, he shall “legally asses the appearing parties”, shall provide counsel as regards the most appropriate legal means to attain their legal purposes, shall prepare the documents necessary for the execution, shall word the instrument and shall explain the legal value and consequences of the acts and facts executed or conducted before him. He shall have the parties execute the documents before him and shall reproduce and keep the original instrument”.

Among others, the following are requirements to obtain the patent Notary Public in Sonora: being a Mexican national by birth and having a registered Diploma as Attorney at Law, as well as having exercised as an attorney at law in the State of Sonora, for at least five years.

The Notarial Law in the State of Sonora sets forth that “in the case of appearing parties that do not speak or understand the Spanish language, the Notary Public shall authorize the instrument if he knows the language or dialect of said parties, stating for the record, that the instrument’s content has been verbally translated to said parties and that the intention has been faithfully reflected in said instrument. The Notary Public that know a foreign language or dialect may translate into the language or dialect reference, the written documents that he require to insert into the deed. In case the Notary does not know the language or dialect of the appearing parties, these shall be aided by an interpreter appointed by them, who shall take an oath before the Notary Public, that he/she shall faithfully perform his/her function. “In summary, whenever foreign nationals appear before a Notary public in the State of Sonora for the purpose of executing any legal act, they shall be accompanied by an interpreter who shall translate the act of reference or the Notary, in case he knows the foreign language of the appearing parties, shall translate it verbally.

Another important feature of the Notary Public is his function as public administration auxiliary, being the warrantor of the compliance of the most varied obligations imposed bye the Stat4 on private parties: obtaining permits, certifications, payment of taxes (federal and states taxes, among which tha most outstanding are the Income Tax and the Tax for the Transfer of Ownership. In this case, the Notary Public’s obligation in to calculate, withhold, file and pay the corresponding taxes); notices, registrations and other similar items.

It must be underscored that due to the North American Free Trade Agreement, for this professional service, Mexico attained a type of reserve of national treatment and local presence, reserving this function only for Mexican nationals by birth, establishing the prohibition for these Notaries to be associated to other parties in order to offer their notarial services, without any transformation schedule.

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