News and Initiatives

President’s Message

I bring you warm greetings from New Zealand where I live and recently the Directors held an excellent meeting by Zoom. A number of positive initiatives are being developed including expansion of our membership base.

Hopefully you have seen our e-publication Notary World and anyone who wishes to contribute an article should send it to our Secretary at [email protected].

Notarial practice is always changing and notaries worldwide must be on the lookout for any suspicious documents and passports. In relation to membership, we would very much like to have members from Jersey, Guernsey, Canada and the West Indies. I am looking after Australia and New Zealand.

The Board is currently developing and finalising its Business Plan so any constructive and helpful comments would be appreciated – again please send them to our Secretary.

With the amount of commerce being transacted throughout the world, there is an increased demand for notarial services, notwithstanding COVID-19. It is essential to maintain high standards in all aspects of notarial practice.

Stewart Germann
President
March 2021

C.L.A.N has been working to develop a strong programme delivering benefits to members. Some details are noted below. Members are warmly invited to request a copy of the Business Plan. Contact Us for your copy

Improving the relationship of the Common Law Association of Notaries (C.L.A.N.) and Common Law Notaries generally with the UINL which is based in Rome

Reason ; Mutual Co-operation.

Building a positive relationship between the Common Law Association of Notaries (C.L.A.N) and the Hague Conference

Reason ; Essential in order to look after the interests of C.L.A.N. members and common law Notaries and their respective profiles.

Encouraging Government Departments, Companies and other bodies in as many common law countries as possible to insist on documentation signed outside their jurisdictions to be attested or verified as necessary by Notaries

Reason; This is already the case with many West Indies Islands, States in the U.S.A., many common law countries in Africa and in India and as a result creates considerable amounts of work for common law Notaries.

Recent good examples of this happening are with the BEN 2 Form from Ireland and certain Affidavits for the Court of Session in Scotland.

Doing this may not directly benefit the Notaries in the country in question but the efforts of Notaries in other countries will do. Accordingly, there will be reciprocated mutual benefits.

By taking every opportunity to promote the advantage of documents being attested by Notaries, including greater certainty as to that the person(s) in question did actually sign the relevant documentation and had full legal capacity, especially when signed outside the jurisdiction.

Ensuring and assisting so that the Educational Standards and Practices of common law Notaries are as high as possible and always of an acceptable level

Reason: It is essential in order to instil public confidence in all common law jurisdictions and confidence in common law Notaries and also respect and awareness from Government Bodies.

How, By Whom and When

In particular, the provision to Members regular editions of Notary World, Webinars and C.L.A.N. conferences.

In addition the Notaries Society of England and Wales regular recorded versions of CPE/CPD Courses/Webinars are now available to all C.L.A.N. members individually upon payment of a reasonable fee.

As a result of negotiations by. C.L.A.N., the Notaries Society of England and Wales has made the following online courses available through its website on the password protected member’s side:

Anti- Money Laundering- essentials and best practice 2022***
Individual’s Information Rights – 2022***
Managing Your Record of Processing Activities – 2022***
Spanish Documents In Depth – 2022****
A Guide to Bills of Exchange – 2021*
A New Company Instruction – 2021*
An Introduction to Bulgarian Documents – 2021*
An Introduction to Spanish documents – 2021*
The Mental Capacity Act 2005 and Capacity Issues – 2021*
Tips and Tools for Good Data Management – 2021*
Course for Supervisors – 2020**

N.B. * Each of these courses were first made available to members in 2021 and each has one CPE accredited point under The Notaries (Continuing Professional Education) Regulations 2010.

N.B. ** This course was first made available to members in 2020 and has three CPE accredited points under The Notaries (Continuing Professional Education) Regulations 2010.

N.B. *** These courses are new for 2022 and each has one CPE accredited point under The Notaries (Continuing Professional Education) Regulations 2010.

N.B. ****This course is new for 2022 and has two CPE accredited points under The Notaries (Continuing Professional Education) Regulations 2010.

All of these courses are available to all members (full or associate ) of the Notaries Society of England and Wales on the website – www.thenotariessociety.org.uk. They should log in as usual and click the tab ‘Online Courses’.

Any C.L.A.N. members who are not members of the Notaries Society of England and Wales and who wish to book Online Courses should follow the following procedure:

Email Rosemary Dunford at [email protected] and tell her:
their name;
their email address;
which course(s) they wish to book.
Rosemary Dunford will email them with confirmation of the amount due to the Society and the bank details for the payment, including the reference to be quoted. No cheques or bank drafts will be accepted.
Upon receipt of payment Rosemary Dunford will book the C.L.A.N. member on the course through the Evercate portal, and they will receive an automated email from Evercate inviting them to set a password and start their course.
Upon such booking, the C.L.A.N. member will have 30 days to complete the course they have booked. If they fail to do so, access to the course will be lost and they will have to pay the fee again. Please note this 30 day period so C.L.A.N. members should not book more courses than they expect to be able to complete in that period.

The price for each of the following courses is £60.00 for C.L.A.N. members (£30.00 for members of the Notaries Society of England and Wales):

Anti- Money Laundering- essentials and best practice 2022
Individual’s Information Rights – 2022
Managing Your Record of Processing Activities – 2022
A Guide to Bills of Exchange – 2021
A New Company Instruction – 2021
An Introduction to Bulgarian Documents – 2021
An Introduction to Spanish documents – 2021
The Mental Capacity Act 2005 and Capacity Issues – 2021
Tips and Tools for Good Data Management – 2021

The price for Spanish Documents in Depth – 2022 is £120.00 for C.L.A.N. members (£60.00 for members of the Notaries Society of England and Wales).

The price for Course for Supervisors – 2020 is £150.00 for C.L.A.N. members (£95.00 for members of the Notaries Society of England and Wales).

The Provision of Webinars for Members

Our intention ; To provide a real benefit for members and to provide CPD/CPE to individual members.

The C.L.A.N. Webinar arranged for 12 May 2021 was highly successful.

The topic for that Webinar was the electronic Apostille Programme (e-APP) and new technologies and developments around the Apostille Convention plus a general update on the HCCH and its work programme. The Speakers were: Christophe Bernasconi. Secretary General of The Hague Convention on Private International Law (HCCH), Brody Warren and Nicole Sims.

Ross McMahon, the Registrar of the Faculty of Notaries Public in Ireland, set up the organisation/hosting of that Webinar using Zoom.

Further appropriate Webinars will be arranged as follow-ons.

Liaising with and working with the Australia and New Zealand College of Notaries (ANZCN) as appropriate

Reason; The ANZCN is an effective body representing common law Notaries in Australasia, which has arranged several biennial Conferences very well. Mutual Co-operation will benefit both Organisations.

Raising the Profile of Common Law Notaries in all individual jurisdictions where there are member Notariats or Individual Associate Members of C.L.A.N.

Reason; The aim is to construct a database of national legal regulatory organisations, judiciaries and oversight bodies. Thereafter, it is essential to canvas such bodies explaining the benefits of the use of Notaries and the value of supporting and promoting a strong and independent International Notarial profession so as to secure the rights of individuals and business both internally and in cross-border settings.