In pursuance of the Notary Law as of February 14th (unified text  in the Jornal of Laws as of 2008, No. 189, pos. 1158 as amended), a notary is appointed to carry out the actions which have to be executed in a form of a notarial deed or the parties wish to do so (notarial actions). Notarial actions are carried out in the Polish language. In the event when a party to an action does not know the Polish language, the presence of a sworn translator is required. A notary performs a notarial action in his office, however, if the case requires so or specific circumstances arise, a notarial action may be carried out in a different place, for example, in a hospital.

A notary carries out the following actions: 1. prepares notarial deeds (among others, sale, conveyance, transfer of real properties); 2. prepares inheritance certification deeds; 3. prepares statements/affidavits/declarations (personal signatures; true copy of a signature, excerpt or a submitted document; date of a document submission; statement that a person is alive or he/she is in a specific place); 4. delivers statements; 5. prepares minutes; 6. prepares objections or defaults in payment against promissory notes and bills of exchange; 7. deposits documents, moneys and securities; 8. prepares excerpts, extracts and true copies of the documents; 9. upon request of the parties, prepares the drafts of the agreements, statements, declarations and other documents; 10. carries out other actions arising out of other provisions and binding regulations.

Since March 2009, the notaries in Poland have been allowed to prepare either statutory or last will inhertiance certifiation deeds (except for inheritance according to special wills). Registered in the Inheritance Certification Deeds' Register which is kept by the National Notarial Board, an inheritance certification deed has a consequence of an absolute court ruling which confirms acquisition of the estate. In the scope of the said actions, the notaries can also prepare the inheritance records, open and announce last wills and testaments, issue certificates for an executor (trustee) of last will and testament.