Penalty for Notarizing Signature Without Presence of Witness By Francis Pileggi on December 8, 2007 Posted in Delaware Supreme Court Updates IMO Pankowski, (Del. Supr., Dec. 4, 2007), read opinion here. In this opinion, the Delaware Supreme Court imposed a penalty for, among many other things, notarizing a signature of a person who is not present at the time of the notarization.