Certificates: limiting your liability with reuse limitations

[Hal]

You write:

>Suppose I am a CA.  I am worried that by issuing a certificate with a 
>lifespan of more than 2 milliseconds I am opening myself up to unlimited 
>liability if for some reason, despite my best efforts, I issue an 
>erroneous certificate.

How do notaries public get around this liability problem?  It seems to me
that the checking done for a certificate might be similar to the checking
done by a notary - a glance at a driver's license, say.  Are they subject
to liability if they are fooled by fake ID?

Hal