What Does Ss Mean in Legal Documents

While each notarial document must contain a notarial deed, each notarial deed usually contains certain elements; The notary will identify and understand the type of data or information to be inserted in this part of the document. A very common element that a notary can see on the notarial deed is the letters « ss », which usually appear in the upper left corner of the document or notarial deed. This is the scope of the certificate that contains the location. The place is the part of the notarized document that indicates the place – the physical place – where notarization takes place: the place where the signatory and the notary are physically located at the time of notarization. What do these letters mean? Since Social Security numbers are a common identifier in our society, many voters and perhaps notaries believe that the letters ask for the client`s Social Security number. It`s not true. The letters « ss » instead of the place of the notary`s certificate actually represent the Latin word scilicet, which means in particular as much as « knowledge » or « to know ». The idea has to do with granting a legal permission or license; Its importance in terms of jurisdiction and notarial certification is currently considered archaic and opaque. Although the letters « ss » may appear on the notarial deed, they are in no way necessary and may be omitted on certain notarial acts that a notary may encounter.

A notary must be diligent in inserting the state and county for the place upon request, but it is not necessary to add the letters « ss » to the notarial deed if they have been omitted. Certification is also valid without it. what Bryan Garner says in the Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage: that it was typed once by mistake, and then copied again and again over the centuries. Collect. says it comes from a flower in the directories (unofficial legal reports from 1282 to 1537). Sorry, LH. I thought you were the person responding to what I wrote through the nature of the comment – it sounded like something the blog owner would say. A misunderstanding. What I said about linguists not being supported – it probably is. The « Scilicet » theory is believed by Merriam-Webster, FWIW. www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ss#legalDictionary In England and perhaps some Commonwealth countries, real wax seals are still a thing (or at least something in my own memory as a practicing American lawyer who occasionally deals with furriers).

We sometimes see « L.S. » for « locus sigilli » on older American legal forms, which was considered enough mana or mojo during an intermediate phase to make the document effective without a real literal wax seal, but I think this has become increasingly rare. But the « SS » in the first section of a state/county of an affidavit remains very common, although it has no obvious functional value, because no one wants to be the one who discovers what cosmic catastrophe will befall the lawyer who is presumptuous enough to leave it out. According to my father, a law professor, « it is the preamble to an affidavit, which is an affidavit made under penalty of perjury before a notary or an official of the court of that state. The party signing the document has declared and sworn everything in the document in that district. However, there are many amusing and archaic legal phrases outside of Latin, such as « in view of a peppercorn with other good and valuable considerations ». Now they have replaced « peppercorn » with « dollars » in contracts. Personally, I would stick to pepper. In fact, « S.S. » is short for « Scilicet » – a Latin term meaning « to know » or « especially. » It is the predecessor of today`s known and required place. The pronunciation is (pardon our Latin!!) « SILL-le-cet. » Many possible etymologies have been suggested for this mysterious abbreviation.

The first is that it means scillicet (= namely, to say), which is usually abbreviated sc. or scil. Another is that ss. « the two gold letters at the ends of the desk chain or necklace » worn by the Lord Chief Justice of the King`s Bench. Max Radin, Law Dictionary 327 (1955). I assure you, this is not a theory, the « ss » as it appears in affidavits, statements, certifications and some jurors means « affidavit ». Let us not murder the law anymore, gentlemen. They have done enough. Do you finally have no sense of decency, gentlemen? Have you left no sense of decency? I apologize for the rant, I think I was Joesph Welch in a previous life.

Sorry, what I was looking for was not ss. But ss. County I did this because I suspect that ss. alone would not be a good research. @David L). I don`t do it myself, but it`s easier than explaining intentional redundancy, given the ease of transposing numbers when writing elongated numbers this way (i.e. if the two versions don`t match, you know there`s a problem and can ask for clarification). And you can`t say by re-reading that 1,372 is a typo for 1,327 unless you know the context so well that you can say that 1,372 doesn`t make sense.

This is probably not justified by cost in most contexts (except in those that are extremely risk-averse, what many authors of such papers are), but it`s not as if there isn`t a non-opaque functional explanation. Note that for court documents with specific page or word counting restrictions (which is a lot of what I do), there is more pressure to remove redundancy, thus abandoning the mysterious inherited chatter aimed at appeasing the dark cosmic forces, but in many other types of legal documents, There is no such incentive for brevity. I can say that in my years of legal studies, § always meant « section », and I have never seen a case where it meant « Scilicet « . No, you need to read a little more David. Read the article. (These are U.S. legal documents that contain a meaningless ss. in the title.) . What, it`s a question of §? In German, it reads like a paragraph, « a certain law », always followed by a number.

It is used almost exclusively in legal contexts, but it is so common that it is on the keyboard (Shift + 3); There are derivative terms such as « law enforcement, legitimate neutral person ».