Again the bad sayings beside the good comments, First no one can be “Notario Publico” in Mexico if they are not lawyers, as you well said it is very hard to get a Notario Publico License, another requirement is that the lawyers need to have an office or a lawyer firm, and the third and most important is to be a well known and respectuful person.
Here in US anyone can be a “Notaric Public” you only need to pass the exam and get the license that’s it. So talking about legally there is way to much chances to do something fraudulent in the US.
About the personal injury lawsuits I think is better the way it is manage in Mexico, here in the states people have learned the way to get money from other people.
Well there are many thing I can tell you about differences here and there, take a look about getting birth certificates, in Yucatan you can get your birth certificate by internet and they can mail it to you any where in the world, getting a birth certificate in the states? My god that is a pain and somehow ridiculous what they ask you to get it done.

We planned to move to Merida in the next year. I just want to ask if it is necessary to have a lawyer to purchase a home there.
In fact we don’t know about the professionalism of the real estate agencies… can we trust them?

Thank you anyway for your site is so interesting.

There is a Yellow Pages here in Merida, actually, with a section for Notarios. All notarios have a number associated with their office, as there are only a certain number of notarios per state. In general, though, it’s best to go with someone who speaks English or has an English-speaker in the office. It’s nice to understand what you are signing

If you look on the left about halfway down the front page of this website, you’ll see a link for something called Community Resources. There are a few lawyers in Merida listed in that publication, and we can recommend them as all being legitimate notarios.