Emergency & After-Hours Notary

Deadlines do not keep office hours. A closing moves to tomorrow morning, a relative is admitted overnight, a court filing has to be sworn before the clerk opens, a buyer's funding window closes at six. This page is for those calls, and it tries to do two things at once: answer you quickly, and be straight with you about when a visit is possible and what it costs.

When this applies

• Same day. You found out this morning that something has to be notarized before the end of the day.
• Evenings. After the workday, at your home or office.
• Weekends, including Sunday. A frequent request, and one many notaries simply do not take.
• Holidays. Available, with planning where possible.
• Overnight. The rarest and most expensive category, and the one where honesty matters most; see below.

The documents are usually the ones that create their own emergencies: powers of attorney for someone who has just been hospitalized, closing packages with a funding cut-off, affidavits with a filing deadline, travel consent letters discovered the night before a flight.

Honesty about availability

Gwen is one person, not a call center. She is not staffed twenty-four hours a day, and we will not pretend otherwise by putting "Open 24 Hours" on a page and hoping. What we will do:

• Answer quickly, and tell you yes or no quickly. A fast no is worth more to you at 9pm than a slow maybe.
• Never take a booking we are not confident of keeping. If the timing is too tight for the distance, we say so while you still have time to call someone else.
• Tell you when an alternative is faster. If your document is eligible, an online session can often happen sooner than a car can cross the Metroplex at rush hour, and it costs you less.

Exactly what happens on an urgent call

1. You call or text with three facts: what the document is, where you are, and by when it must be done.
2. We tell you as soon as we can whether it is feasible, including whether the location has access restrictions: a hospital unit, a secured office building, a detention facility.
3. We quote the full number before we leave: the State notarial fee, the visit fee for your zone, the evening/weekend or late-night/holiday charge, and the same-day rush charge if it applies, each on its own line.
4. You confirm, and we drive. You get an arrival window, not a vague "soon." Arrival times depend on traffic and weather; we confirm a time window when you book.
5. We check ID, confirm the signer understands and is signing willingly, and complete the notarization with the same care as a Tuesday afternoon appointment. Urgency never shortens the identity check.

What to have ready: this matters more when time is short

• An unexpired government photo ID for every signer, physically in hand. An expired license is the most common reason an emergency appointment fails, and it is unfixable at 10pm.
• The document, already written and with every blank filled in by you, except the signature. We do not write, fill out or choose documents, and we cannot decide what goes in a blank for you. Print it if it needs to be on paper.
• Any accompanying documents: exhibits, attachments, and any instruction sheet from the party that will receive it.
• Do not sign it before the appointment. Some documents must be signed in front of the notary, and Gwen cannot always tell in advance which kind yours is, so the safe rule is to wait.
• Any witnesses the document requires, already present. We do not provide witnesses: you arrange and bring your own, each with a photo ID. Finding witnesses at short notice is the second most common reason an urgent signing falls apart.
• A clear address, a gate code, a room number, a parking instruction. Time spent circling a building is time off your deadline.

What urgency costs

Urgent work costs more, and you should see the number before you agree to it, not on an invoice afterwards.

Visit, after-hours and rush fees are ours and are not notarial fees; they appear as their own lines on the receipt. A notarization itself is the $10 State fee, period; one visit fee per visit comes on top. Zones go by ZIP code. For example, one notarized signature in Addison on a weekday evening is $10 State fee + $15 visit fee + $20 evening charge = $45. The visit fee is paid when you book, to reserve the time (cancel 2 or more hours ahead for a full refund; inside 2 hours, half is kept; a no-show or an appointment that cannot go ahead, such as no valid ID, a document that is not ready, or a signer not ready within 15 minutes of the appointment time, keeps the full visit fee), and State fees are collected at the appointment, before stamping. Paid parking, valet and tolls are at cost. Beyond about 20 driving miles, the visit fee is quoted first. The final amount is always confirmed with you before we book. The notarial fee does not change because it is late: the statutory maximum is the statutory maximum at 2am.

State notarial fees are set by Texas Government Code § 406.024 and § 406.111. Travel and convenience fees are separate and are not notarial fees.

Where we can realistically get to

Within about 20 driving miles of Addison: Carrollton, Richardson, Plano, Farmers Branch, Coppell, Frisco, Las Colinas and Irving, University Park, Highland Park, Garland, Lewisville, The Colony and North Dallas. Farther trips are quoted first. Arrival times depend on traffic and weather; we confirm a time window when you book. At peak hours that window is wider than a map would suggest.

The limit that urgency does not move

We notarize documents you provide; we do not prepare, draft, select or advise on documents. She cannot give legal advice, cannot tell you which document you need, and cannot tell you how to fill out your paperwork or what to write in it. And a notary must decline where the signer cannot understand what they are signing or is not signing willingly, however pressing the deadline. That rule holds at midnight exactly as it holds at noon.

Call now

Tell us the document, the place and the deadline, and we will give you a yes or a no, with a price, as quickly as we can. Request urgent service.