What does it mean to be a notary?

The notaries, all of them graduates in Law and having entered the profession by passing a tough competitive examination, have a dual professional aspect: on the one hand, they are public officials who guarantee to the citizens the legal security necessary and laid down by the Constitution in article 9 in the field of extrajudicial legal business. And, at the same time, they are professionals in Law who practice in the regime of competence, that is to say, it is they themselves who deal with the management and organisation of their offices.

Equitable advice, impartiality and independence are the fundamental characteristics of the figure of the notary, whose principal function is to advise the citizens, businesses and authorities on the configuration of those contracts or legal business which are best adjusted to their needs and the framework of strict legality.

The notary is a guarantee of legitimacy and security both for private people and for the State.

What do we do?

Notaries give a public service which consists of:

  • guaranteeing legal advice to the citizens on a personal level in all the fields of private law
  • drafting with legal rigour and in accordance with the common wish of the persons interested documents which contain legal acts and business in civil and mercantile life
  • authorising those documents and, therefore, giving them probative force,  executive value and the presumption of legality attributed to them by Law
  • preserving the original documents in strictly secret archives, public but of private interest, while delivering the appropriate copies