Section 176.920  Form and Content of Journals Maintained on a Tangible Medium

a)         A journal maintained on paper or any other tangible medium may be in any form that meets the physical requirements in this Section and the entry requirements in Section 176.910.

b)         The cover and pages inside the journal must be bound together by any binding method that is designed to prevent the insertion, removal, or substitution of the cover or a page.  This includes glue, staples, grommets, or another binding, but does not include the use of tape, paper clips, or binder clips.

c)         Each page must be consecutively numbered from the beginning to the end of the journal. If a journal provides two pages on which to record the required information about the same notarial act, both pages may be numbered with the same number or each page may be numbered with a different number.  Page numbers must be preprinted.

d)         Each line, or entry if the journal is designed with numbered entry blocks, must be consecutively numbered from the beginning to the end of the page.  If a line extends across two pages, the line must be numbered with the same number on both pages.  A line or entry number must be preprinted.

e)         The journal of a notary public must remain within the exclusive control of the notary public at all times.

f)         A notary public who performs multiple notarizations for the same principal within a single transaction may abbreviate the entry of those notarizations in the notary journal after first including all the information required by the Act.  The abbreviated entry must indicate the type of transaction and the number of documents notarized as part of that single transaction.

g)         A journal maintained in a tangible format must be retained for a minimum of 7 years after the final notarial act chronicled in the journal.

h)         The retention requirements for this Part do not apply to notaries in the course of their employment with a governmental entity.

(Source:  Added at 47 Ill. Reg. 8640, effective June 5, 2023)