There are three types of notaries: public, private and special. A public notary is a type of lawyer who can perform certain legal tasks such as witnessing documents or performing marriages. A private notary does business in their own name and cannot represent anyone else but themselves during a transaction; they’re usually used for real estate transactions and other important dealings. Special notaries are authorized to certify copies of official papers that don’t fall into one of the other two categories-they may be helpful if you need to get a document notarized quickly.