Do I need a solicitor or is a notary enough?

Solicitor, notary, commissioner for oaths — the terms get used almost interchangeably in everyday conversation, but they describe genuinely different roles, and picking the wrong one can mean a document gets rejected abroad after you have already paid for it. Understanding the distinction before you book an appointment can save real time and expense.

A notary public in England and Wales is a qualified lawyer — notaries are, in fact, members of the oldest branch of the legal profession in the country — but their day-to-day role is quite different from a typical solicitor's. Notaries are appointed by the Court of Faculties of the Archbishop of Canterbury and regulated by the Master of the Faculties, and there are only a few hundred practising in England and Wales — the Notaries Society, their representative body, represents roughly 770 of them. A notary's core work is authenticating documents so they will be recognised and accepted outside the UK: verifying the identity of the person signing, confirming they understand and are willingly signing the document, witnessing the signature, administering oaths and affirmations, and certifying copies of original documents as true copies.

This is the key distinguishing feature — notarisation exists primarily for documents that need to be used internationally. A power of attorney to be used for a property purchase abroad, company documents needed to open an overseas bank account, or a document confirming someone's marital status for use in another country's legal system are all typical examples of the kind of document a notary handles. Many notaries in practice are also solicitors who have taken the additional qualification to become a notary, but the notarial work itself is a distinct role from ordinary solicitor's work, governed by its own separate regulatory framework.

Notarisation on its own is often not the final step for documents heading abroad. Many countries that are party to the 1961 Hague Convention require a further certificate called an apostille before they will accept a UK document as genuine. In the UK, the only body that can issue an apostille is the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office's Legalisation Office, which operates from Milton Keynes and is not open to the public directly — applications generally go through the post, a registered service provider, or a solicitor or notary handling the process on your behalf. The Legalisation Office checks the signature, seal or stamp on the document against its own records of registered officials, solicitors and notaries, and attaches the apostille certificate confirming it is genuine — it does not check or vouch for the content of the document itself, only the authenticity of the signature and seal on it. Whether a specific document needs an apostille, and whether it needs notarising first, depends on the destination country's own requirements, so it is worth checking that directly, or asking a notary who regularly handles documents for that country, before starting the process.

A commissioner for oaths is a narrower role again, and one that causes particular confusion because solicitors and notaries are automatically qualified to act as commissioners for oaths as part of their existing qualification, without any separate appointment. A commissioner for oaths administers oaths, affirmations and statutory declarations — for example, witnessing a sworn statement for use in UK court proceedings — but does not have a notary's broader powers to certify documents for international use or affix a notarial seal. In short: if a document is staying within the UK and simply needs a sworn oath or statutory declaration witnessed, a commissioner for oaths — which in practice is often just a solicitor at a firm carrying out that specific, narrower function — is generally sufficient. If a document is going abroad and needs to be recognised by a foreign authority, a notary, and quite possibly an apostille on top, is the more likely requirement.

Given how much this depends on the specific document and the destination country's own rules, this article is general information only, not legal advice, and does not recommend using a notary over a solicitor, or vice versa, for any particular situation. Our directory lists solicitors, including some who are also qualified notaries, by area — and checking directly what a receiving country or institution actually requires, before booking an appointment, is the most reliable way to avoid paying for the wrong service.

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