DC Notary Journal Requirements — Journal Required, Bound if on Paper (2026)
Yes. The District of Columbia requires notaries to maintain a journal chronicling their notarial acts, and a journal kept on paper must be a permanent bound register with numbered pages. Printed loose pages do not satisfy the District's law.
The rule: D.C. Code § 1-1231.18, part of the District's Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts, requires a notary to keep a journal of all official acts, with the uniform format rule: a tangible journal must be a permanent, bound register with numbered pages, and an electronic journal must be in a permanent, tamper-evident electronic format. The Office of Notary Commissions and Authentications administers DC's notary program and publishes the current guidance.
Last updated: August 2026.
What each DC entry must include
The date and time of the act, a description of the record and the type of act, the name and address of each individual for whom the act is performed, "the signature of each individual for whom the notarial act is performed," a brief description of the method of identification and the credential presented, including its date of issuance and expiration, and the fee charged (D.C. Code § 1-1231.18(c)). The signer signs the DC journal, so the book is at the table at every signing.
What happens to the journal later
A lost or stolen journal is promptly reported to the Mayor. On resignation, revocation, or suspension of a commission, the notary transmits the journal to the Mayor; on a notary's death or adjudicated incompetency, whoever holds the journal does the same (§ 1-1231.18(d)-(f)). DC notaries do not keep their journals when the commission ends.
What DC notaries should buy
A bound journal with numbered pages from any notary supplier, or a compliant electronic journal. Nothing else satisfies the requirement for the journal itself. One register at a time holds every act until it fills; numbered pages are what make an old entry findable years later.
Questions DC notaries ask
Do signers sign the DC journal? Yes. The signature of each individual for whom the act is performed is a required entry under § 1-1231.18(c)(7).
Can I keep my DC journal electronically? Yes, in a permanent, tamper-evident electronic format. Loose printed pages qualify as neither a bound register nor a compliant electronic journal.
Who oversees DC notaries? The Office of Notary Commissions and Authentications, under the Secretary of the District of Columbia. Its published guidance is the authority on journal details.
Does the DC journal rule apply to government notaries? Mostly yes, with one exemption. DC commissions notaries in several types: business, residential, DC government, federal government, and dual commissions. A notary commissioned solely for D.C. government employment is not required to keep a journal; every other commission type is.
The honest note from us
Prep & Print Notary Journal sells a $19 app that prints filled-in journal pages, and printed pages do not comply with the District's bound-register rule. If you are commissioned in a state that leaves the journal format to you, the app is at prepandprintnotary.com. DC notaries: buy the bound book or a compliant electronic journal.
Update, September 2026: we make a bound edition now. The Prep & Print bound journal is on Amazon — permanently bound, one signing per two-page spread, preprinted page and entry numbers, signature and thumbprint boxes, in five cover colors.
Every state's rule is on one page: Notary Journal Requirements by State.
Sources: D.C. Code § 1-1231.18; Office of Notary Commissions and Authentications guidance. General information, not legal advice.
