New Jersey Notary Journal Requirements — Bound Register or Electronic (2026)
Yes. New Jersey requires notaries to keep a journal of their notarial acts, and a paper journal must be a permanent bound register with numbered lines and numbered pages. Printed loose pages do not satisfy New Jersey law.
The statute: N.J.S.A. 52:7-10.18, added by New Jersey's 2021 notary law (P.L. 2021, c. 179), requires the journal and fixes the format:
"If the journal is maintained on a tangible medium, it shall be a
permanent, bound register with consecutively numbered lines and
consecutively numbered pages."
An electronic journal is permitted in a permanent, tamper-evident electronic format complying with the State Treasurer's rules.
Last updated: August 2026.
What each New Jersey 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, how the signer was identified, including the type, issuance date, and expiration date of any identification document, and an itemized list of the fees charged (N.J.A.C. 17:50-1.11). The journal is retained for ten years after the last act chronicled in it. A lost or stolen journal is reported to the State Treasurer within ten days; on a notary's death or adjudicated incompetency, whoever holds the journal writes to the State Treasurer within 45 days for transmission instructions.
What New Jersey notaries should buy
A bound journal with numbered pages from any notary supplier, or an electronic journal that meets the Treasurer's rules. Nothing else satisfies the statute for the journal itself.
Numbered lines and numbered pages are what make an old entry findable. One register at a time holds every act; when it fills, the next begins.
Questions New Jersey notaries ask
When did New Jersey start requiring journals? With the 2021 notary law. If you were commissioned before it, the duty applies to you now all the same.
Can I keep my New Jersey journal electronically? Yes, in a permanent, tamper-evident electronic format complying with the State Treasurer's rules. Loose printed pages qualify as neither a bound register nor a compliant electronic journal.
Do attorneys keep journals in New Jersey? The rules give attorneys and title companies an alternative: a notary who is a New Jersey attorney, is employed by one, or is employed by or acting as an agent for a title insurance company may keep the records of notarial acts "in the form of files regularly maintained" for the practice or business, in place of a journal (N.J.A.C. 17:50-1.11).
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 New Jersey's bound-register rule. If you are commissioned in a state that leaves the journal format to you, the app is at prepandprintnotary.com. New Jersey 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: N.J.S.A. 52:7-10.18; N.J.A.C. 17:50-1.11 (journal rules); NJ Notary Public Manual. General information, not legal advice.
