A Notary or Notary Public will always be an admitted attorney but will have passed the practical examination in respect of the practice, functions and duties of a notary. Certain documents are required to be drawn only by a notary, for example Ante-nuptial contracts (ANC’s), long term leases, cessions, subleases as well as cancellations and releases thereof, deeds of servitude and notarial bonds. In addition, the noting and protest of a dishonoured bill of exchange, sea protest and the certification of the Memorandum of Articles of Association of companies when first established are matters that only a notary public is permitted to attend to. Furthermore in terms of specific legislation, a notary is required to authenticate documents, to administer a specific oath and to certify documents as true copies of the original. Certain countries will only accept the authentication of a document for use overseas, if it has been duly authenticated by a notary public in South Africa. In addition, although not the exclusive preserve of notaries, wills, trust deeds, donation contracts and underhand leases are usually drafted by notaries, although an attorney can also draft these documents. It is customary for a notary public to have a seal of office that he or she affixes to documents that he or she executes. This seal will be specially ordered and created for that notary and it contains the notary’s name and the word around the seal will state “notary”.

An Attorney is a lawyer in South African law so a person who has studied to qualify as an attorney through a tertiary education, has served their articles and passed the board exams specified by the Law Society and been admitted by the High Court to practice as an attorney at law in South Africa. It takes approximately 6-7 years to achieve this qualification in South Africa and you are not a specialist when you qualify, you can however, achieve a specialisation in a specific area either in conveyancing or another area of law, by studying further or working in that area until you have gathered the relevant experience. There are many areas of specialisation eg matrimonial law, commercial law, patent law, litigation etc.

Conveyancing deals with the transfer of immovable property, the hypothecation of immovable property by means of mortgage bonds and the execution of various other acts with regard to immovable property. Conveyancing is also the branch of law in South Africa that deals with the preparation of deeds and documents for registration or filing in the deeds registry. Conveyancing therefore refers to the entire registration process involved when purchasing or selling a property including the drafting, lodgement and signature of a variety of documents as required by the authorised party. A conveyancer is an admitted attorney who has passed a specialised conveyancing examination and has subsequently been admitted as a conveyancer of the High Court of South Africa. Every conveyancer is already an admitted attorney before they can become a conveyancer.