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Witness Guidelines for Individuals

Casey Birkholz
  • Updated

Overview

Understand what a witness is and how to choose one when completing transactions on the Proof platform.

🎯Primary Audience: Signers

Witness Explanation

A witness is an additional person who is not a party to the transaction and is present to witness the signing of the specific document.

As the signer, you may be obligated to have your transaction witnessed. Whether or not a witness is required depends on:

  • Requirements set forth in your document(s).
  • Guidelines of the state in which your notary is commissioned, if applicable.
  • Specifications of the requester (the business that created the transaction), if applicable.

To meet an obligation to provide a witness (or two), you can either:

  • In advance, ask a person of your choosing to physically join you in the same room, appear with you during the online notary meeting, and act as your witness
    -or-
  • Select Proof's On-Demand Witness option. (Additional fees apply.) Learn more below and in the On-Demand Witness article.
⚠️ Do not expect your notary to act as the witness. Except for Florida real estate transactions, notaries cannot act as witnesses of the transaction they are notarizing.

Select a Witness

Proof does not set witness requirements in the platform as they are generally dictated less by notarial law and more by the documents themselves or their receiver.

However, we recommend you consider the following when choosing your witness:

Will you bring your own witness or use a remote witness?

  • Remote witness scenarios:
  • I'll provide my own witness: In advance, ask a person of your choosing to physically join you in the same room, appear with you during the online notary meeting, and act as your witness:
    • Don't want to ask anyone to do this? Understood. That's what Proof's On-Demand Witness solution is for!
    • If you have someone in mind to witness your transaction, great! Check out the questions below to make sure they're a good fit.

Are they 18 years of age or older?

  • Many documents require witnesses to be 18 years or older.

Are they interested in, or a party to, the transaction?

  • Witnesses are generally prohibited from participating in or benefiting from the transaction.

Do they meet your document-specific and/or state requirements?

  • Read your documents carefully. If applicable, you may need to check with the business that created the transaction.
ℹ️ Document Witnesses are not typically required to validate their identity on the Proof platform. However, notaries may be required to confirm the age and/or ID of the witness if instructed to do so by either the organization that created the transaction or the regulations of the state in which the notary is commissioned. If required to provide ID, witnesses can use a non-U.S. ID if they are co-located with the signer(s) during the meeting and use the same device as the signer for the meeting.
❗Proof does not provide any legal advice, including advice about witness requirements.

Start a Witness Transaction

Click the link in your email to begin the process and follow the on-screen prompts:

  • When asked to verify your identity, provide your information, not the witness's information.

Maximum witnesses & signers

ℹ️ A total of ten (10) devices can connect to a meeting. One must be a notary and one must be a signer; the rest can be any combination of participants (signers, real estate contacts, etc.), with a maximum of 2 witnesses.
✅ The notary will guide witnesses through signing their document portion during the live video notary meeting.

Still have questions you can't find answers to? Click the chat icon in the corner of your screen to start a chat or email us at support@proof.com!

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