Civil-law notaries, or
Latin notaries, are
lawyers of
noncontentious private civil law who draft, take, and record
legal instruments for private parties, provide
legal advice and give attendance in person, and are vested as public officers with the authentication power of the State. Unlike
notaries public, their
common-law counterparts, civil-law notaries are highly trained, licensed practitioners providing a full range of regulated legal services, and whereas they hold a public office, they nonetheless operate usually—but not always—in private practice and are paid on a fee-for-service basis. They often receive the same education as attorneys at civil law but without qualifications in advocacy,
procedural law, or the law of
evidence, somewhat comparable to
solicitor training in certain common-law countries.