Record of protocolization

As it has just been indicated, the notarial notarization acts are an instrument that allows the incorporation of a document in possession of the applicant, to the protocol of a Notary Public, thus ensuring that such document is preserved in any case.

In this regard, it is necessary to take into account that Notaries are public officers, who authorize public instruments (mainly deeds and minutes). These public documents are incorporated into the notarial protocol, which, in accordance with the Law, is property of the State, and with respect to which the Notaries have the obligation to keep it, as archivists of the same, under their responsibility. 

Thus, when any person grants a deed or deed, he/she must know that this original document is incorporated to the notarial protocol, which will be kept by that Notary in an uninterrupted way as long as he/she continues as holder of that position, while, in case he/she leaves that position (because, for example, If he/she retires or is assigned to another position in a different place), his/her successor will continue with the work of conservation and custody of that protocol, until, after 25 years, it will be sent to the corresponding Notarial Association for its conservation, in principle, in perpetuity.

In view of the above, as can be seen, if any person grants a notarization deed, what he/she achieves is that said document, which is filed with the Notary, remains safe, so that, whenever needed, a copy of the same can be obtained, by requesting a simple or authentic copy of said notarial deed, as the case may be.

<ejemplo>Así pues, si cualquier ciudadano posee un documento que tiene importancia o relevancia para su persona o intereses, y por los motivos que fuere (por ejemplo, por su estado de conservación, por el temor a la destrucción del documento por terceras personas, etc.) quiere asegurar la integridad del mismo, optando por el acta de protocolización conseguirá su objetivo, pues una vez que dicho documento conste incorporado al protocolo notarial, este quedará a salvo y se conservará a perpetuidad, pudiéndose obtener siempre que se desee una copia del mismo, solicitando a tal efecto una copia simple o auténtica de dicha ata.<ejemplo>

In addition to the aforementioned usefulness, that is, the possibility of preserving a document in perpetuity through its incorporation into the notarial protocol, the use of the notarization deed can also be very useful for the interested parties, since it will allow us:

• To ensure their respective identity.
  
  That is to say, to ensure that a certain person possesses specific documents, with a specific content, and that for this purpose it is that person who brings them directly to the notary's office.
• To ensure its existence before third parties on a specific date, that is, the day of notarization of the deed.
  
  With this we can prove that a certain document existed, at least, on a certain date, which can be very useful for evidentiary purposes in certain contentious cases.
  

In practice, there are many cases in which it may be of interest to resort to the notarization act, among which we can highlight, among many others:

• The need to safeguard a document relevant to a person, given the possibility of its loss (such as, for example, documents stored in a company, in respect of which a joint administrator is afraid that the other administrator may destroy or misplace them).
• The need to keep a document for fear of an eventual illegitimate theft by third parties (such as a thief entering our home and stealing it).
• The possibility of safeguarding documents that are in a poor state of preservation and may deteriorate further in the future(such as old documents where the paper or ink is degrading, and to prevent the process from becoming irreversible and the document from becoming unreadable in the future, it is notarized with a photocopy to preserve it).
• The need to preserve a certain old judicial decision of transcendence for the parties, since it should be taken into account that judicial decisions, such as judgments or orders, once a certain period of time established by procedural legislation has elapsed, are expunged (i.e. destroyed), so that it would no longer be possible to obtain a copy from the Court if the copy we have is lost or destroyed.
• The need to prove to third parties that a certain document exists on a certain date(which may be useful in a situation where two contracting parties have entered into a private contract, and it may be feared that a posteriori, one of them may challenge that the date on the document is not certain).
• Recently, in view of the growing importance of human relations in social networks and remote communication media, the protolization of E-mails or whatsapp conversations is also very common, especially in cases in which their content may have relevance in a possible contentious situation(useful for example in the event that a person recognizes a certain fact in a whatsapp conversation and the recipient wants to safeguard that conversation to assert it in a trial, fearing that by losing or destroying his phone, he can no longer prove the reality and content of the conversation).
• Preserve screenshots of web pages in which competing companies engage in illegal practices, such as industrial or intellectual property violations, patent or trademark infringement, misleading advertising, etc.

The content of the protocolization act is very simple. In it, the requesting person will be identified, after which, the Notary will record that he/she has been requested to incorporate certain documents to his/her protocol and the same will be delivered (either originals or copies that are provided) to be attached to the matrix of the record.

Likewise, the document shall state the number of pages of the document delivered, in order to avoid possible alterations at a later date.