Título XI. Archivo General de protocolos

The General Archive of Protocols, a dependency of the Presidency of the Judicial Branch, is responsible for registering judicial mandates, receiving and preserving extrajudicial files of voluntary jurisdiction, the special testimonies of the public instruments authorized by the notaries of the country and the Protocols deposited therein upon death, impediment or absence of the respective notary.

It shall be directed by an active collegiate notary qualified to practice the profession and who has practiced the same for a period of not less than five years. He shall bear the title of Director of the General Archive of Protocols, and shall be appointed by the President of the Judicial Branch.

The Supreme Court of Justice may order, under its strict responsibility, the transfer to any other place of the special testimonies and Protocols of notaries that have been microfilmed or reproduced by another procedure in the Archive, but it may only incinerate or destroy the special testimonies when ten (10) years have elapsed counted from the date of receipt.

The Director of the Archive, upon taking possession of the office, shall receive by inventory the protocols, books and other documents of the Archive, and shall draw up a record in which shall be stated everything relating to the delivery and receipt of the office, which shall be signed by the outgoing and incoming directors, and a copy of which the Director shall remit to the Supreme Court of Justice.

The inventories of the Archive shall contain the list of all the documents on file therein, and with respect to the protocols, the indication of the number thereof, the folios of each volume, the years covered and the name of the authorizing notary.

The Director of the General Archive of Protocols has the following attributions:

1ºTo extend certified copies of the public instruments held in the Archive, a verbal request of the interested party being sufficient;

2ºTo carry out the inspection of the protocols of the notaries residing in the capital and in the municipalities of the department of Guatemala;

3ºTo require delivery of the protocols in conformity and in the cases established by this law;

4ºTo keep and preserve under his responsibility the protocols, books of records and of inventories, notarial notices and other documents of the Archive;

5ºTo render to the tribunals the reports requested thereof relating to the documents of the Archive;

6ºTo ensure that the indexes, special certified copies and notarial notices are bound, with due separation;

7ºTo extend a receipt for all the documents and notices received from the notaries, on the same date of their receipt;

8ºTo register powers of attorney and any modification or revocation thereof, in rigorous chronological order, for which purpose he shall keep a special book;

9ºTo annotate in the margin of the instruments held in the Archive, the modifications they undergo and of which he has knowledge by notice from the authorizing Notary.

Such annotation shall be included in the certified copies extended thereafter;

10.Not to allow the protocols, certified copies and documents of the Archive to be removed, even with an order of a judicial authority. If the authority, whatever it may be, must carry out any proceeding, it shall verify it in the Archive itself, in the presence of the Director, who shall sign the record drawn up;

11.To report to the Supreme Court of Justice each violation of Article 37, as well as the other faults incurred by the notaries through non-observance of this law, and the irregularities found in the protocols inspected and reviewed by him; and

12.To enter the closing note and prepare the respective index in those protocols delivered to the Archive, and in which the Notary has been unable to satisfy such requirement, for justified cause;

The Archive is public. The director shall permit, without any charge, any person who so requests, consultation of any deed or document, within the same office, as well as to take such data and notes as they may wish. If they are wills or donations upon cause of death of persons not deceased, they may only be exhibited to the grantors, upon verifying their identity, and to the authorizing notary.

For the collection of expenses and fees, the director shall conform to the Schedule of Notarial Fees. The fees shall be paid into the Treasury of Justice Funds for the monthly payment of the salary of the director and employees of the Archive and of office expenses.