Notary Public Lee's journal currently has entries numbered 1 through 47. Lee performs a jurat for a client, which is the next official act. What rule governs how Lee must record this act in the journal?

The journal's evidentiary value depends entirely on its being a single continuous sequential record. Sequential numbering in one active journal means that a missing entry is visible as a gap, that entries cannot be inserted after the fact, and that the record of any given day can be located and read in order. Every alternative degrades that. Starting a fresh page with an arbitrary number breaks the sequence and destroys the ability to detect omissions. Keeping a separate logbook by act type produces two partial records with no combined chronology, so no one can reconstruct what happened on a given day. And delaying the entry to the next day breaks the requirement that the journal be completed at the time of the act, when the details are before the notary and the signer is present to provide a thumbprint if one is required. So Lee's jurat is entry 48 in the same active journal, recorded at the time of the act.

The journal is a single continuous sequential record, so the act is recorded as the next number in the same active journal at the time it is performed.

California requires a sequential journal of notarial acts, completed at the time of each act, recording the date, type of act, document, identification relied upon, fee charged, signature and, where required, a thumbprint.

One Journal, One Sequence. A gap has to be visible, and it only is if the numbers run straight through.

Only one active journal at a time. Multiple concurrent journals defeat the sequential record even if each is internally consistent.

• •Keeping separate journals for different act types
• •Completing entries later in the day
• •Starting a new sequence on a new page