MovieChat Forums > Incendies (2011) Discussion > Notary = lawyer in Canada and other part...

Notary = lawyer in Canada and other parts of the world

posted 7 years ago by Priat
2 replies | jump to latest

I was confused why they kept referring to the guy as notary when he seemed to be a lawyer.

Looking it up on Wikipedia it starts the entry with this...

A notary is a lawyer (except most of the United States)

So it's not like in the states where everybody and their uncle can easily become a notary after 3 hours of training and some other stuff.

[–] pdlussier1 7 years ago

No. The guy is in fact a notary (notaire). I'm French-Canadian; in all provinces, a notary is a notary, and a lawyer is a lawyer. We do have far more stringent requirements in order to become a notary in Canada (especially in Quebec) than a 3-hour course, but less than being a lawyer.
Notaries do take care of certain legal matters (act as official witness, property searches (legal ownership), seal/validate docs, handle heritage-related matters, etc.) but they'll never argue legal matters in a judicial court.

Ignorance is bliss... 'til it posts on the Internet, then, it's annoying.

[–] 7 years ago

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