If the notary journal is in the possession of the Secretary of State's office, or if the notary public is a public official or public employee, then the notarial journal falls under the public record disclosure laws. Should the Secretary of State, Corporation Division, deem that it is in the public interest not to disclose such information, the notary journal would not be made public. It is reasonable for a customer to see his or her own entry recorded in the notary journal, but the entries above and below should be covered to protect the privacy of those individuals. Oregon does not require its notaries public to be bonded or to have liability insurance. This is left to the discretion of the notary public.
Liability insurance protects the notary public.
Bonding protects the customer from the notary public. A notary public cannot notarize his or her own signature. A notary public must be an impartial witness. The law does not forbid notaries from notarizing the signatures of relatives, but it is not a good practice. If the document was ever taken to court, a judge might determine that the notary public was not impartial, or had influenced a relative in the signing of the document.