For the effectiveness of various legal transactions, the authentication or certification by a notary is required by law. As an independent holder of a public office, the notary is obliged to be impartial and differs in this respect from the notary profession lawyer who is responsible for the interests of his clients. Notaries are active in the area of so-called “precautionary justice”. This includes legal transactions in the field of marriage and family law, corporate law and real estate law, as well as personal provision matters. Even in legal transactions that do not require notarization, the notary can act on your request.
All notaries active in both main and secondary occupations in Germany are registered in the register of the Federal Chamber of Notaries. According to statistics from the Bundesnotariatskammer in Germany in 2013 there were 1524 full-time notaries and 6036 lawyer notaries.
The full-time notary and the lawyer notary
The profession of notary distinguishes between the full-time “Nur-Notar” and the lawyer’s notary. The lawyer is also a licensed attorney and can also work as an auditor or tax auditor. “Notaries-only” may carry out an additional paid activity only with the approval of the competent authority. In contrast to the profession of lawyer, the access to the notary is not free: the appointment to the notary can only be made if there is a corresponding need. To become a full-time notary, you must be trained by a notary for three years after completing your law degree. During this time as a notary assessor, you also take over the representation of notary notaries present. As a “lawyer notary,” you may call yourself if you were able to gain at least five years of professional experience after completing law school. In addition, you must have worked as a full-time lawyer for three years and have successfully passed another additional notarial exam.
The Notary
These are mainly notary services in the areas of company law (eg in the founding of corporations, in articles of association, changes to the articles of association, in M & A transactions and private equity companies), real estate law (the recording of land register entries, purchase contracts, Liens, contracts with developers), family and inheritance law (the recording of divorce contracts, marriage contracts) and other notarial services such. For example, the notarization of Supervisory Board meetings and shareholders’ meetings.