Gov. Code, § 8219.5 · Article 1. Notaries Public
Gov. Code, § 8219.5
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) Every notary public who is not an attorney who advertises the services of a notary public in a language other than English by signs or other means of written communication, with the exception of a single desk plaque, shall post with that advertisement a notice in English and in the other language which sets forth the following:
(1) This statement: I am not an attorney and, therefore, cannot give legal advice about immigration or any other legal matters.
(2) The fees set by statute which a notary public may charge.
(b) The notice required by subdivision (a) shall be printed and posted as prescribed by the Secretary of State.
(c) Literal translation of the phrase “notary public” into Spanish, hereby defined as “notario publico” or “notario,” is prohibited. For purposes of this subdivision, “literal translation” of a word or phrase from one language to another means the translation of a word or phrase without regard to the true meaning of the word or phrase in the language which is being translated.
(d) The Secretary of State shall suspend for a period of not less than one year or revoke the commission of any notary public who fails to comply with subdivision (a) or (c). However, on the second offense the commission of such notary public shall be revoked permanently.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 1998, Ch. 879, Sec. 30. Effective January 1, 1999.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=GOV§ionNum=8219.5.
- Text hash
- sha256 f6e3782218d629bb91ed764bc6ff1820fbf46b445d682df15e470cd9a68e7b55
- Composed by
- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
Cited by 1 provision
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Government Code
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.