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Witnesses

Casey
  • Updated

A witness is an individual who personally observes an event take place.

The Proof platform, along with The Notarize Network, supports various types of witnesses who may participate in a notarization or another type of secure transaction.

ℹ️ A total of ten (10) devices can connect to a meeting. One must be a notary and one must be a signer, but the rest can be any combination of participants (signers, real estate contacts, etc.), with a maximum of 2 witnesses.

Witness Types Supported by Proof & The Notarize Network

Credible Identifying Witness

A Credible Identifying Witness vouches for the identity of a signer after successfully completing Identity Verification.

Document Witness

A Document Witness is an individual who watches another individual sign a document.

Florida Property Remote Witness

A Florida Property Remote Witness is personally known to the notary and observes the execution of a document by a person who is in the witness's electronic presence but not the witness's physical presence.

Remote On-Demand Witness

A notary may be able to call an on-demand witness if needed. Learn more:

Articles by Audience

🔗  Anyone can access most of the resources linked below. However, some notary articles require users to sign in to the Help Center. Read Access Notary Help Center Articles to learn more.

Witness Types Not Available on the Proof Platform

The following two types of witnesses are not yet available on the Proof platform.

Signature Witness (Proxy Signer)

A Signature Witness is a notary who witnesses or observes someone signing a document as an official notarial act.

  • This is different than a Document Witness, and it's relatively uncommon.
    • An affirmation or jurat is often performed instead of a signature witnessing.
  • An easy way to recognize when a Signature Witness is required is to check the notarial certificate:
    • If it says "Signed (or attested) before me…”, it's a Signature Witnessing.
⚠️ Signature Witnessing is not available on the Proof platform at this time.

Subscribing Witness (Attestation)

Also known as an attestation, a Subscribing Witness watches the signing of a document and then appears before a notary in the principal signer's place to "attest" that the absent principal party willingly signed the document.

Some states do not allow subscribing witnesses due to the high potential for fraud.

⚠️ Attestation is not available on the Proof platform.

Alternatively, the Representative Signer feature may meet the needs of those who need to have someone sign a document on their behalf.

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