What Is an Authentic Act in Louisiana?

The text of the rule

La. Civ. Code art. 1833(A)

“An authentic act is a writing executed before a notary public or other officer authorized to perform that function, in the presence of two witnesses, and signed by each party who executed it, by each witness, and by each notary public before whom it was executed. The typed or hand-printed name of each person shall be placed in a legible form immediately beneath the signature of each person signing the act.”

Article 1833 continues in two directions that matter in practice.

Art. 1833(B), on counterpart execution

The act need not be executed at one time or place, or before the same notary, or in the presence of the same witnesses, so long as each party signs before a notary and two witnesses, and each party, each witness, and each notary signs it. The article also provides that failing to include the typed or printed names does not by itself affect the validity or authenticity of the act.

Art. 1833(C), on a party who cannot sign

If a party is unable or does not know how to sign, the notary must cause that party to affix a mark to the writing.

Why Louisiana has this and other states do not

Louisiana is the only civil law state in the country. Its private law descends from the French and Spanish codes rather than the English common law, and the authentic act is a civil law institution with no true equivalent in the other forty-nine states.

This is why forms downloaded from national websites so often fail here. A form drafted for a common law state will have one notary block and no witness lines, because in that state the notary alone is sufficient. Signed in Louisiana, that same form is simply not an authentic act, and if the transaction is one Louisiana requires to be authentic, the document does not accomplish what the parties intended.

What an authentic act does for you

La. Civ. Code art. 1835

“An authentic act constitutes full proof of the agreement it contains, as against the parties, their heirs, and successors by universal or particular title.”

In plain terms, the document proves itself. Nobody has to be brought into a courtroom to testify that the signatures are genuine, because the notary and two witnesses already attested to that at the moment of signing. That proof is strong but not absolute: the presumption can be rebutted by credible evidence that the act is not what it appears to be on its face.

That evidentiary weight is the entire point of the extra formality. You are trading fifteen minutes and two witnesses today for not having to prove the document later, often at a moment when the people who signed it are unavailable or deceased.

Authentic act, acknowledged act, private signature

Form	How it is executed	Typical use
Authentic act	Signed before a notary and two witnesses, all signing at execution	Required where the law demands it, including donations inter vivos
Act under private signature duly acknowledged	Parties sign; a signature is afterward acknowledged before a notary	Accepted for many transactions, but not a substitute where an authentic act is required
Act under private signature	Signed by the parties, no notary	Valid between parties for many ordinary agreements

The practical rule: these are not interchangeable. Where Louisiana requires an authentic act, nothing weaker will do, and the failure is usually invisible until someone examines the document years later.

An authentic act cannot be done online in Louisiana

Louisiana Revised Statutes 35:623(C) provides that remote online notarization may not be used to execute an authentic act as defined in Civil Code article 1833. If the transaction requires an authentic act, everyone signs in person. What Louisiana RON can and cannot do.