Notary Services at Courts to be Slashed

Courthouse services for notaries public will be eliminated as part of a package of $560,000 in spending cuts, county officials said Friday.

Effective July 1, notaries will have at most two locations in Los Angeles County--Norwalk and, possibly, Lancaster--where they can file their oaths of office and surety bonds. The reduced service will also affect members of the public who need to verify the notary’s signature or seal on a document.

Richard Hughes, an assistant county clerk and registrar-recorder, said notary commission services will be eliminated at the 14 Superior courthouses, falling under the same cost-cutting ax as marriage license services. The cut in marriage license services was announced earlier this week.

It is still unclear where the notary service will now be offered. While it will definitely be available at the county clerk’s new office in Norwalk, Hughes said a decision had yet to be made on whether to offer it at the county government complex in Lancaster.

There are an estimated 50,000 notaries public in Los Angeles County. After receiving their commissions, notaries have 30 days in which to file an oath of office and a mandatory $10,000 surety bond with the county clerk. Commissions must be renewed every four years. From July, that transaction is going to be a lot more time-consuming.

Mike Bernardi, a notary in Chatsworth, said he has always gone to the courthouses in Van Nuys or San Fernando for commission services. If he has to drive to Norwalk or Lancaster, “I might have to take half a day instead of a couple of hours,” he said.

Notaries and people with seals to authenticate, like spouses-to-be, could also face long waits at the Norwalk and Lancaster offices where no staff will be added to handle the increased demand. ‘Essentially, you’re looking at the same number of widgets being processed by fewer people,” Hughes said.

He added that county officials were studying ways to relieve the possible congestion, but warned: “There are going to be some lines, no question about it.”