The presented article analyzes the place and significance of harm as a condition for the occurrence of civil liability of a notary. With regard to notarial activity and the principle of «hyper-responsibility» of a notary, harm should be assessed from the point of view of the external expression of the harm caused and the implementation of a mechanism for full compensation for the harm caused. Based on this, three types of harm caused by a notary to participants in notarial legal relations can be distinguished: lost profits; real damage; moral damage. With regard to notarial legal relations, the author comes to the conclusion that there is a contradictory approach between the legally formulated goal of full compensation for the damage caused and the «law enforcement» limitation of compensation for damage solely to real damage.