STUDIO NOTARILE SLS ANDREA LETIZIA - ERNESTO SICO

A Notary's Tasks

"The more a notary, the less a judge"

These are the words used by a famous legal practitioner (Carnelutti) when defining, in essence, the function of a notary (which is the most important of activities entrusted by the law to the notary).

The quote means that the more successfully a notary carries out his work- to ascertain and interpret the will of different parties (people's wishes) which involves the process of completing a contract and drawing up with clarity and in respect of the law the respective clauses then there will be less need to turn to a judge (that is, there will be less risk that the notarial deed will be the cause of lawsuits). This is why the notary is unable to draw up acts that have been specifically forbidden by law (section 28 of the notarial law) and is obliged to be sure of the parties' identities (section 49 of the notarial law) and to personally ascertain their will (section 47 of the notarial law).

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Competences

A notary is a public officer appointed to draw up deeds among living people (sales, exchanges, divisions, loans, etc.) and by last will (wills), attest their truthfulness, preserve them, issue probate copies, certificates (that is summaries) and abstracts (that is partial copies) (section 1 of the notarial law).

The deed drawn up by a notary is a public deed, since he is entitled to acknowledge its public truthfulness (for this reason the notary is a public officer); as such, the notary’s deed has a special legal power: what the notary attests in the notarial deed (i.e.: the deed has been read before the parties or a statement has been made or undersigned before the notary) can be considered as full evidence (and is to be considered as true even by a judge) unless the crime of forgery has been ascertained.

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