Tennessee Notary Laws: Commissioning, Duties, and Fees

Tennessee notary laws are set out in Title 8, Chapter 16 of the Tennessee Code, and they cover every stage of the job: who qualifies, how you get commissioned, what acts you can perform, how you verify signers, what you must charge or record, and what will cost you the commission. A Tennessee notary is elected by the county legislative body, commissioned by the governor for a four-year term, and authorized to act in any county in the state. Continuing to notarize after that term expires is a Class C misdemeanor.¹

Who Can Become a Tennessee Notary

You must be at least 18, a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident, and either live in or maintain a principal place of business in the county where you apply. That county tie only has to exist at the time the county legislative body elects you. If you move afterward, you can keep the commission as long as you remain in Tennessee.² Someone whose principal place of business sits in a Tennessee county can be elected there even while living across a state line.

Three disqualifiers are absolute. You cannot be commissioned if you have ever been removed from a notary position for official misconduct, ever had a notary commission revoked or suspended in any state, or ever been found by a court to have engaged in the unauthorized practice of law. Every applicant certifies under penalty of perjury that none of the three applies.

How to Get Commissioned

The application starts at your county clerk’s office. You complete the form, pay the application fee, and submit it to the clerk. The county legislative body then votes on your appointment, a step meant to confirm your character and fitness.²

After the county approves you, three things have to happen before you can notarize anything:

File a $10,000 surety bond from an authorized insurance company with the county clerk. The bond protects the public if you act negligently or dishonestly. When a claim pays out, the bonding company can come back at you for reimbursement.³
Take an oath of office before the county clerk, swearing to carry out your duties faithfully and impartially.
Purchase an official seal at your own expense. The Secretary of State prescribes the design: a circular stamp with your name at the top, your county of election at the bottom, and “State of Tennessee Notary Public” or “Tennessee Notary Public” in the center. The stamp must print in a color other than black or yellow and must appear black when photocopied. New commissions no longer receive embosser seals. If you’d rather not order the seal yourself, the county clerk can order it and charge a markup of up to 20 percent.⁴⁵

Once those steps are complete, the governor issues the four-year commission. When your term ends or you resign, the seal has to be surrendered to the county legislative body through the county clerk.⁴

What a Tennessee Notary Can Do

A commissioned notary in Tennessee may act anywhere in the state, not only in the county of election. The county connection matters for your election and bond filing, not for where you’re allowed to notarize.⁶ The authorized acts are:

Acknowledging signatures, which confirms the signer’s identity and that they signed willingly. This is the routine act for deeds, powers of attorney, and other recordable documents.
Administering oaths and affirmations, placing someone under a sworn obligation to tell the truth. Affirmations serve the same purpose for people who object to swearing.
Taking depositions, meaning sworn testimony recorded outside a courtroom, usually for litigation.
Taking affidavits, meaning sworn written statements of fact.

You can also certify copies of certain private documents, such as contracts and business records, by confirming that a copy matches its original. Public records are off-limits. You cannot certify a copy of a birth certificate, death certificate, or court document; those come from the issuing agency.

Marriages

Since April 28, 2021, Tennessee notaries have been authorized to solemnize marriages. No extra license or training is required beyond the notary commission itself. The usual officiant rules apply, including confirming that the couple has a valid marriage license.⁷

Verifying a Signer’s Identity

Before you acknowledge a signature, you have to be satisfied that the signer is who they claim to be. Tennessee law gives you two paths: personal knowledge of the signer, or satisfactory proof of identity. On documents that will be recorded, the signer must personally appear before you, either physically or through approved audiovisual technology for online notarizations.⁸

Personal knowledge means real acquaintance, not a passing familiarity. It has to come from association across circumstances that establish the person’s identity with reasonable certainty. When you don’t know the signer that way, the standard is a current government-issued photo ID such as a driver’s license or passport.

If a signer has no acceptable ID, a credible witness who is personally known to you can swear under oath that they personally know the signer. It is a backup for genuine cases, not a shortcut, and it carries the same weight and risk as any other identification method.

What You Cannot Do

The fastest route to losing your commission is notarizing a document you have a personal stake in. The Tennessee Attorney General has addressed two common scenarios:⁹

Notarizing your spouse’s signature violates the duty to act without favor or partiality. The notarization is not automatically void, but it is voidable in court on any evidence of undue advantage, fraud, or oppression.
Notarizing a document in a matter where you have a financial interest is treated the same way. The Tennessee Supreme Court has recognized that it is contrary to public policy for any officer to take an acknowledgment on an instrument in which they are directly or indirectly interested.

Beyond conflicts, Tennessee sharply limits what a non-attorney notary can do with legal matters. If you are not a licensed Tennessee attorney, you may not give legal advice, accept fees for legal advice, or help anyone select or complete forms related to immigration status unless federal law specifically authorizes it. Any advertisement of your notary services, in any medium, must carry a conspicuous disclaimer in English and in whatever other language the ad uses: “I am not an attorney licensed to practice law in the state of Tennessee, and I may not give legal advice or accept fees for legal advice.”¹⁰

Fees and Journals

Tennessee notaries may charge reasonable fees, but the statute does not set a specific dollar cap for traditional acts.¹¹ Reasonableness is the only standard, so fees should track what is customary in your area. Online notarizations have a firmer ceiling: no more than $25 per notarial act on top of any other authorized fees.

Recordkeeping turns on whether you charge. If you or your employer collects a fee for notary services, you must keep a journal, in a well-bound book or an electronic record, documenting each act. If no fee is charged, or if your employer charges a general fee that does not separately itemize the notarization, no journal is legally required.¹¹ Keeping a journal anyway is a good habit. If a notarization is later challenged, a contemporaneous record of the date, the signer, the type of document, and how you verified identity is your best defense.

Remote Online Notarization

Tennessee permits notarial acts to be performed remotely through real-time two-way audio and video technology under the Online Notary Public Act.¹² An online commission is separate from your traditional one and sits on top of it. It is not something you can do with a webcam and good intentions.

Before applying to the Secretary of State, you have to contract with an approved third-party technology vendor that provides electronic seal and signature tools, identity proofing and credential analysis, and secure storage of session recordings. Your application includes vendor documentation covering the technology, your electronic seal, your electronic notarial certificate, and the vendor’s identity-proofing methods. The initial application fee is $75, paid online through the Secretary of State’s portal.¹³

During an online session, you verify identity either through personal knowledge of the signer or through remote presentation of a government-issued photo ID combined with credential analysis and identity proofing. Credential analysis confirms the ID is legitimate; identity proofing confirms that the person holding it is the person pictured. Every electronic notarial certificate must note that the act was performed as an online notarization.¹⁴

Online notaries have to keep a secure electronic journal of every online notarization, including the date and time, the type of act, a description of the document, the name and address of each signer, how identity was verified, any audio-video recording of the session, and any fee charged. Records must be kept for at least five years after the notarization, with a backup, protected from unauthorized access.

Renewing, Changing Your Name, or Moving

Renewal repeats the original process. You submit a new application and fee to the county clerk, get re-elected by the county legislative body, obtain a fresh $10,000 surety bond, and take a new oath.¹⁵ There is no grace period. If your commission expires before you finish renewing, stop notarizing that day. Acting after expiration is a Class C misdemeanor.¹⁶

If your surname changes during the commission, or you move your residence or principal place of business to a different Tennessee county, you must notify the county clerk of the county where you were commissioned and pay a $7 fee. The clerk forwards the change to the Secretary of State. The statute requires notification but sets no deadline, so do it promptly.¹⁷

Moving out of Tennessee is different. Residency or a principal place of business in Tennessee is a continuing qualification, so a notary who takes acknowledgments after leaving the state commits a Class C misdemeanor.

Surety Bond and Errors and Omissions Insurance

The $10,000 surety bond is required, and it protects the public, not you. If you make a mistake and someone suffers financial harm, the bonding company pays the claim and then seeks reimbursement from you. You remain personally liable for the full amount, plus any costs above the bond.³

Errors and omissions insurance is optional and protects you. It covers legal defense costs, court fees, and the claim itself for unintentional mistakes or false claims filed against you. Legal defense alone can exceed the $10,000 bond amount, which is why many notaries carry it even though the state doesn’t require it.

Losing the Commission

Tennessee notaries can be removed through ouster proceedings, the same mechanism used for other public officials who commit misconduct. Grounds include willful misconduct in office, knowingly neglecting a duty imposed by law, or committing any act violating a criminal statute involving moral turpitude.¹⁸

For notaries in practice, the conduct that triggers removal tends to be falsifying an acknowledgment, notarizing a signature without the signer appearing before you, knowingly notarizing a fraudulent document, or failing to keep the required surety bond in force. A removed notary must surrender the seal and stop all notarial activity immediately. Because prior removal or revocation is on the list of absolute disqualifiers for new applicants, the consequences travel with you: you cannot be recommissioned in Tennessee, or in any other state that asks about your history.

1
Tennessee Secretary of State. How Long Does a Notary Commission Last?
2
Tennessee Secretary of State. How to Become a Notary
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Justia Law. Tennessee Code 8-16-104 – Surety Bond
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Justia Law. Tennessee Code 8-16-114 – Seal of Notary Public for the State of Tennessee
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Tennessee Secretary of State. What Are the Requirements for Notary Seals
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Justia Law. Tennessee Code 8-16-112 – Scope of Authority – Powers
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Tennessee Secretary of State. Can a Notary Perform Marriages?
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Justia Law. Tennessee Code 66-22-101 – Authentication
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TN.gov. Opinion No. 10-97 Notarization of Spouse’s Signature
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Justia Law. Tennessee Code 8-16-201 – Notice That Notary Public Is Not an Attorney
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Justia Law. Tennessee Code 8-21-1201 – Fees for Services
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Justia Law. Tennessee Code 8-16-301 – Short Title
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Tennessee Secretary of State. How to Become an Online Notary Public
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Justia Law. Tennessee Code 8-16-310 – Online Notarization Identity Verification
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Tennessee Secretary of State. How Do I Renew a Notary Commission?
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Justia Law. Tennessee Code 8-16-120 – Acting After Expiration of Commission
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Justia Law. Tennessee Code 8-16-109 – Name Change – Relocation of Notary Residence or Principal Place of Business to Another County
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Justia Law. Tennessee Code 8-47-101 – Officers Subject to Removal