Persons of the Legal Sector
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As defined by the law, the notary public is a public officer, which means a person delegated to handle activities of official aspect. He is related to the Ministry of Justice and fulfills the tasks determined by the law pertaining to the organization of the notary public profession or any other law, as well as the works that the concerned parties request to prove, and he mainly handles the authentication of all the documents aimed to be granted the official aspect or to prove its date or to be kept and to deliver a copy thereof.
The notary public is not an official employee in the public institutions and he does not receive any remuneration from the treasury of the State, but directly from the concerned parties.
The notary public profession is currently organized by virtue of the law number 337 issued on 08/06/1994.
Organization of the Notary Public Profession
The Ministry of Justice carries out a competition to choose notaries, and the candidate shall:
- Be Lebanese since more than ten years.
- Be more than twenty five years old, without exceeding the age of forty four, at the date of the beginning of the competition.
- Be sound of diseases and disabilities that may prevent him from fulfilling the tasks of the notary public, and this may be proven as per a certificate issued by the official medical committee.
- Enjoy his civil rights, and not be condemned for a felony or attempt of felony of any type, or for a “dishonorable” misdemeanor or attempt of “dishonorable” misdemeanor, noting that the meaning of “dishonorable crimes” is determined by the fourth paragraph of the fifth article of the notaries’ statute.
- Be holder of the Lebanese Bachelor’s Degree at Law.
The person willing to take the exam shall submit an application of candidacy in the Ministry of Justice.
The committee, consisted of judicial and administrative judges designated by the Minister of Justice, decides on the abovementioned applications, after conducting a personal interview with every candidate, and handles the task of the board of examiners.
The decisions of this committee cannot be subject to any way of revision, including the annulment request for exceeding the limit of authority.
The date of the competition is announced at least one month before its fixed date, by the ministry of justice, after the Minister of Justice has determined the legal topics of the competition, provided that they are not less than five subjects.
The person who passes the competition is appointed as a trainee notary public by virtue of a decree upon the proposal of the Minister of Justice, and pursues a training session for six months during which he joins one of the departments of Notary Public by a decision of the Minister of Justice, and by the end of the determined duration, he automatically becomes an incumbent notary public with no need to issue any text in this concern.
Before initiating his tasks, the notary public should take the legal oath before the Court of Appeals in Beirut. Samples of his signature and addresses are deposited at the General Directorate of the Ministry of Justice which, in its turn, deposits them with all the competent authorities. He should also present to this ministry a guarantee under the conditions determined by a decision of the Ministers of Finance and Justice, and elect a domicile for his office within the circumscription of his competence as determined in the decree of his appointment.
The functions of the notary public end automatically when he reaches sixty four years old.
Principles of practicing the notary public profession
The Ministry of Justice carries out a competition to choose notaries, and the candidate shall:
- Be Lebanese since more than ten years.
- Be more than twenty five years old, without exceeding the age of forty four, at the date of the beginning of the competition.
- Be sound of diseases and disabilities that may prevent him from fulfilling the tasks of the notary public, and this may be proven as per a certificate issued by the official medical committee.
- Enjoy his civil rights, and not be condemned for a felony or attempt of felony of any type, or for a “dishonorable” misdemeanor or attempt of “dishonorable” misdemeanor, noting that the meaning of “dishonorable crimes” is determined by the fourth paragraph of the fifth article of the notaries’ statute.
- Be holder of the Lebanese Bachelor’s Degree at Law.
The person willing to take the exam shall submit an application of candidacy in the Ministry of Justice.
The committee, consisted of judicial and administrative judges designated by the Minister of Justice, decides on the abovementioned applications, after conducting a personal interview with every candidate, and handles the task of the board of examiners.
The decisions of this committee cannot be subject to any way of revision, including the annulment request for exceeding the limit of authority.
The date of the competition is announced at least one month before its fixed date, by the ministry of justice, after the Minister of Justice has determined the legal topics of the competition, provided that they are not less than five subjects.
The person who passes the competition is appointed as a trainee notary public by virtue of a decree upon the proposal of the Minister of Justice, and pursues a training session for six months during which he joins one of the departments of Notary Public by a decision of the Minister of Justice, and by the end of the determined duration, he automatically becomes an incumbent notary public with no need to issue any text in this concern.
Before initiating his tasks, the notary public should take the legal oath before the Court of Appeals in Beirut. Samples of his signature and addresses are deposited at the General Directorate of the Ministry of Justice which, in its turn, deposits them with all the competent authorities. He should also present to this ministry a guarantee under the conditions determined by a decision of the Ministers of Finance and Justice, and elect a domicile for his office within the circumscription of his competence as determined in the decree of his appointment.
The functions of the notary public end automatically when he reaches sixty four years old.
Vacations and Transportation
The Minister of Justice grants, as per a decision issued by him, to the Notary Public administrative and sickness vacations. Meanwhile, one of the permanent employees of the personnel of the Ministry of Justice, or one of the judicial assistants who are holders of a Lebanese Bachelor’s Degree at Law, or one of the legal assistants, are designated to handle the tasks of the notary public all along the duration of his absence.
The notary public will be transferred or substituted for another notary public by virtue of a decree issued upon a written request of them.
Fees and Remuneration
The notary public receives the fees determined in the schedule enclosed with the law pertaining to the organization of the notary public profession, and he affixes the fiscal stamps legally required.
The notary public receives, in addition to the fees due to the State’s treasury, remuneration with a rate of 30% of the value of these fees and additional remuneration in case of his displacement.
The notary public should make a detailed list of the fees payable to the treasury of the State and the remuneration that he receives for every formality, in a clearly visualized place at his office, in order to be easily noticeable and readable; and he should register on every formality he accomplishes a detailed and clear declaration of the paid fees and remuneration, and he should deliver a receipt thereof.
Records held by the Notary Public
The notary public holds an organized record, known as “daily register”, in which he lists all the daily operations that he undertakes by order of dates, and in which he records a summary of the deeds and names of contracting parties as well as the value of the paid fees and remunerations.
He holds as well:
- A register of the deposits, in which he records the commercial withdrawal deeds.
- A register of the correspondences, in which he keeps the letters and the communication that he undertakes with the concerned parties or the third parties.
- A register of the requests, in which he records the names of the contracting parties and the date of their formalities.
- A register of the legacies, in which he keeps the legacies he organizes and legalizes.
These registers, before being used, are numbered and certified by the President of the First Instance Court of the circumscription in which the office of the notary public exists.
It is forbidden to move the registers outside the office of the notary public, and in case they are stolen, destroyed or damaged, he should immediately notify the ministry of justice to carry out the inspection and produce a detailed report on the case, in his presence.
Obligations of the Notary Public
According to the law, the notary public is bound to undertake his obligations and to observe the statute designated for him and to work within the limits of his competences and authorities.
The notary public is, as well, bound to maintain the confidentiality of the profession; thus he cannot disclose the content of the documents that he organizes and keeps, or the names of the contracting parties.
He is also bound to keep original copies of the documents that he organizes, and to take the necessary measures to preserve them from being lost, steeled or destroyed.
The law forbids the notary public to undertake some activities, of which, a part is related to his conduct or to his dealing with other activities incompatible with his tasks, and another part is closely related to his tasks.
The notary public is prohibited from going on strike, at the risk of assuming the behavioral or criminal responsibility of the employees.
He is prohibited as well from joining between the profession of notary public and other professions and salaried works and commercial or industrial or journalistic activities, excepted for the teaching outside the official duty. And he is prohibited from joining between his profession and the profession of Public prosecutor or Minister or Member of the Parliament, or the membership or the presidency of the board of directors before one of the companies.
In case the notary public violates these preventions, he is deemed automatically and finally discharged from the tasks of notary public and his position becomes vacant, and this shall be declared as per a decree.
The notary public cannot leave the Lebanese territories or close his office, or be absent, or refuse to receive clients, unless he obtains the prior written approval of the Minister of Justice, except for the fact that he is unable to do so due to illness for example, then he shall inform the Ministry of Justice about it on the next day of his absence, and also shall determine the duration of his absence.
The notary public is prohibited from organizing or certifying the documents if they fall exclusively within the competence of another authority as per an explicit legal text. He is also prohibited from holding more than one register for the same kind of formalities and at the same time. He cannot organize documents in which he, his ascendants, descendants or relatives till the fourth degree, have any interest, whether he enters into the contract authenticated by the document, in his personal name, or through another person.
The notary public is prohibited from delivering an original copy of the document organized by him, or a first true copy, or duplicates of such document for persons other than the concerned parties, unless he is authorized to deliver it by a judicial order.
On the other hand, the notary public shall avoid the organization or the certification of documents or contracts including, upon his estimation, clauses or conditions contradicting the public order, the ethics or the imperative provisions of law, at the risk of cancellation of the document organized in violation of this prevention.
Inspection
The notary public is submitted to financial and administrative inspection made by judges delegated, for this purpose, by the Minister of Justice, among the judges of the Ministry of Justice, or made by employees of the personnel of the Ministry of Justice of at least the third category, assigned as per a decision of the Minister of Justice, who decides, after examining the inspection reports, and according to the importance of the violation committed by the notary public, either to warn him, or to blame him, or to cause him the interruption of functions for a duration not exceeding six months or to refer him to the disciplinary council for public employees.
Cooperative Fund
The cooperative fund of the notaries was established in 1994, with the task of providing medical, cultural, social and residential aids to the adherents.
This fund is managed by a committee constituted of five notaries chosen by the Minister of Justice, among whom he names a president.
The revenues of the fund are constituted of the monthly contributions paid by the adherents and of the donations that the commission of the fund decides to accept.
Responsibilities of the Notary Public
Civil Responsibility of the Notary Public
The notary public is responsible and can be judicially pursued before the competent courts in case he breaches the principles of his function and violates his professional obligations, and mainly in case he neglects to follow the legal procedures when drafting the documents or to keep the accounts or to pay the fees, or in case he does not observe the preventions determined by the law; and he irresponsible for any crime committed by him intentionally.
The notary public is responsible for the formal and objective defects existing in the documents organized by him and causing its cancellation. And the notary public may assume a contractual responsibility when he refrains from executing a power of attorney that he was assigned for, or when he commits faults in the context of such execution.
The notary public is responsible for any violation of the obligation of orientation he is assigned for, and which mainly supposes to enlighten the contractors concerning the extent and the effects of their commitments and the results that may result from the contract written or authenticated by him.
The notary public assumes a civil responsibility for the mistakes committed by the writers and the employees in his office during the fulfillment of their tasks.
To consider the notary public responsible, three conditions shall be met:
- The proof of a mistake committed by him.
- The occurrence of a certain and current damage.
- The link of causality between the damage and the mistake committed by him.
Each person whose rights were subject to damage as a result of the mistake of the notary public is entitled to sue him for remuneration because of the damage, provided that he proves that the three abovementioned conditions are met, and the notary public cannot exempt himself from his professional obligations by inserting a clause in the contract that abolishes his responsibility.
The responsibility of the notary public may be reduced if the damaged person has participated by mistake in causing this damage, and may be eliminated in case the occurring damage results only from the mistake of the damage party.
Penal and Disciplinary Responsibility of the Notary Public
The notary public is sentenced to a criminal sanction for any breach committed by him against the principles and the rules of his function. The sanction is a fine from One Hundred Thousand and Five Hundred Thousand Lebanese Pounds if the breach results from his negligence or ignorance in drafting the deeds or holding the accounts or paying the fees; if the breach is made intentionally, the sanction shall be a fine from Five Hundred Thousand to Two Million Lebanese Pounds and imprisonment between two months and two years.
The penal pursuit of the notary public, concerning the activities resulting from the fulfillment of his function, is submitted to the authorization of the Minister of Justice.
On the other hand, the notary public may be referred to the Public Disciplinary Council of the public employees as per a decision of the Minister of Justice in case he violates the obligations of his function.
The disciplinary council is entitled to sentence one of the following sanctions:
- Warning
- Blame
- Interruption of work for a duration not exceeding six months
- Interruption of work for a duration varying between one year and three years.
- Final prevention from practicing the profession of notary public
The Minister of Justice, himself, mayimpose one of the first three disciplinary penalties.
The disciplinary decisions cannot be subject to any way of revision or to amnesty; however, the decision of condemning the notary public, issued by the council, is limited to the disciplinary sanction, without including neither the recuperation of the paid remuneration nor the remuneration for the caused damage.