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affidavit?
Agreements PROVINCIAL COURT SUPREME COURT

Affidavits An affidavit is a document that contains facts that you swear under oath or affirm
are true.
How do you write an affidavit?

What to include in an affidavit or You can use an affidavit instead of giving evidence to the judge as a witness. A

bring to court good affidavit has just enough important information to help the judge make a
decision.
Who can swear an affidavit?
But there are strict rules about:
Write an affidavit
how it should be written,
Find a court form
what it can include, and
Filling out court forms how it's sworn or affirmed.

Serving documents
It's important to get it right, so here are some tips to help you.
Court orders

Legal help
What do you say in an affidavit?
If you have to go to court
The affidavit is your evidence. The three most important rules about what you write
I've been served with a court form in it are:

Tell the truth.

Stick to the facts.

Only include things relevant (related) to your case.

Tell the truth

If the judge believes your affidavit is false or misleading:

they won't accept your evidence, and

you could find yourself in serious trouble if turns out you didn't tell the truth.

Stick to the facts

Only include facts that you have first-hand knowledge of. That means you can only
write down what you:

saw,

heard,

did, or

said.

If you're about to start a sentence with "I believe that" or "I think that," don't write it
in the affidavit.

But there are a few times where it's okay to say something like "I believe that":

Sometimes an expert (for example, a mental health professional or an

accountant) will have to write an affidavit for someone's case. If they do, they're
allowed to include an opinion because they're being asked to write what they
think as an expert.

You can quote something you heard another person involved in the case say, but
you have to be the one who heard them say it. If you do this, write down:
the name of the person, and
the date they said what you're quoting in court (or your best memory of that
date if you're not sure).

If your affidavit is part of a Supreme Court Chambers application for an interim

order, you can include information that you don't have first-hand knowledge of.
For example, you could write: "My son's teacher, Mary Oakes, told me on or
about November 23, 2013, that my son did not attend school on October 28, 29,
30, or 31, and I believe this to be true." But if you do this, you have to write down
how you found out about it. The three things you need to include if you do this
are:
who told you,
when they told you, and
that you believe what they said is true.

Sometimes you can write down something your child said. Courts often let people
do this so they don't need to call the child as a witness.

Only include things relevant (related) to your case

Don't write anything that isn't directly related to your case. For example, you don't
need to list every single argument you and the other person had while you were
together. See the seven tips for more about this.

Seven tips for writing affidavit statements

Here are seven tips to help you write an affidavit to prove your case.

1. Stay calm and fair:

Avoid opinions and conclusions even if they're based on facts. For example:
Instead of: He was drinking before he arrived at the house.
Write: When he arrived, he smelled strongly of alcohol and was slurring his
words.

Avoid descriptions of how you felt or reacted. For example:

Instead of: I was shocked to discover her new boyfriend had stayed
overnight.
Write: Her new boyfriend has stayed at the house overnight.

Avoid arguing. For example:

Instead of: It's unfair that he gets to see the kids even though he's behind in
his child support payments.
Write: He's three months behind in his child support payments. He sees the
children three times during the week and every other weekend.

Avoid legal arguments, For example:

Instead of: Under the child support guidelines, he should be paying me $500
a month.
Write: His guideline income is $54,000.

Avoid words like "always," "never," or "all the time." For example:
Instead of: He always forgets about special occasions.
Write: He forgot about our son's birthday last year and this year.

Avoid guessing about someone's state of mind. For example:

Instead of: She needs mental health treatment.
Write: She was crying when she came to pick up the children last week and
the week before.

Avoid making accusations about lying or stealing. For example:

Instead of: He took $40 from my wallet.
Write: I left $40 on the table by the front door. I noticed it was gone after he
picked up the children.

2. Stay focused:

Only include information that's relevant (connected) to what you're asking the
court to decide on. The affidavit starts with a general background section, but
you don't need to include every detail about your relationship and every
argument you've had.

In a court case, information is considered relevant only if it can be used to

prove or disprove an important fact or issue in your case. See the Checklist of
information to include in an affidavit or bring to court to help you figure out:
what to include in the background section and
what's relevant to your case.

3. Use plain language:

You don't need to use complicated or legal-sounding language.

Write simply and use short sentences.

4. Keep your details concise (short) and directly related to what you're asking the
judge to order.

5. Be organized and tidy:

Use the Checklist of information to include in an affidavit or bring to court to

help you organize your information. Headings and subheadings can be helpful.

Put each fact or piece of information in its own paragraph.

Number each paragraph and list the facts:

in chronological order (the order they happened), or
by topic.

Number all the pages.

Check your affidavit for spelling mistakes or typos.

If you've handwritten your affidavit, the judge has to be able to read your
writing.

6. Get your details right:

When you’re trying to decide what to include, think about:

who
what
when
where
how

Give exact dates and dollar amounts wherever you can. If you can't remember,
make your best guess.

7. Use "I" instead of "the claimant," "he/she," or "they" as much as you can. This will
help you stick to the rules about facts and relevance.

What do the forms look like?

The affidavits look different for each court. See our Court forms page to find links to
blank forms.

See also our I sample affidavit to see what a completed affidavit looks like.

Click the name of the court you're using to get more information.

Provincial Court B

Supreme Court B

Swear the affidavit

To swear or affirm your affidavit, take it to a lawyer, notary public, or commissioner
for taking affidavits.

Sometimes courthouse staff will swear affidavits. Call your local courthouse to
find out if they'll do this for you.

If you're going to a lawyer or notary public, call them first to:

make sure they can swear or affirm the affidavit for you, and

ask how much they charge.

See Who can swear an affidavit? to find out more about who can swear your
affidavit.

When you go to have the affidavit sworn or affirmed, take government-issued photo
identification with you. Your driver's licence is perfect for this. If you don’t have a
driver’s license you can use a passport, permanent residency card, or BCID.

The person who swears the documents for you has to be sure you are who you say
you are. After they identify you, they'll ask if:

you've read the affidavit, and

you swear (or affirm) that the contents are true to the best of your knowledge
and belief.

You answer yes, sign the affidavit, and then the person witnesses your signature.

The lawyer, notary, or commissioner has to:

print their name below their signature, or

use an ink stamp of their name.

If the judge believes your affidavit is false or misleading, they won't accept your
evidence. It's a serious matter to make a false or misleading affidavit.

If you have to change the affidavit after it's been sworn, you'll have to:

make the change in handwriting,

initial each change,

ask the person who swore the affidavit to initial each change, and

get the affidavit re-signed and re-sworn.

As of March 27, 2020, you can swear an affidavit by videoconference if your Supreme Court matter is urgent
and it's impossible or medically unsafe for you to meet a commissioner to swear an affidavit.

As of April 15, 2020, during the period of reduced Provincial Court operations due to COVID-19, you don't need to
swear or affirm an affidavit that you're filing to support your request for an urgent family hearing. Submit your
affidavit with your Application for an Urgent Hearing form.

Exhibits
If you want the judge to see a document that supports a statement you've made in
your affidavit:

refer to it in your affidavit, and

attach the document to your affidavit as an exhibit.

Exhibits can be all sorts of things: a text message, email, photograph, or a receipt,
for example.

When you refer to an exhibit in your affidavit, you have to tell the judge about it. For
example:

On October 30, I received an email from the respondent that said he would not
be taking the children over Christmas break as we had agreed. That letter is
attached to this affidavit as Exhibit A.

Daughter has been doing well in school and I attach her report cards for the
2018 school year as Exhibit B.

Since the respondent did not show up for the agreed to parenting time, I had to
cancel my trip and was not able to get a refund. Receipts for my costs are
attached as Exhibit C.

A character reference (a letter from someone saying you're a good person) isn't a
proper exhibit.

When you take the affidavit to the commissioner for taking affidavits to be sworn,
you have to take all your exhibits. The commissioner has to identify each exhibit
referred to in the affidavit. To do this, they sign a certificate that they stamp on the
exhibit. The wording on the certificate looks like this: "This is Exhibit A referred to in
the affidavit of Jane Doe sworn (or affirmed) before me on 30/Oct/2014."

If you have more than one exhibit, mark them A, B, C, etc., in order, and arrange them
alphabetically. Number the pages of each exhibit starting from page 1.

Just like affidavits, each exhibit has to be short and to the point. The judge can only
look at what's relevant. So you wouldn't include a long email chain, for example,
since much of what is included in that might not be relevant. Find the most
important part and just refer to that.

If someone has first-hand knowledge of the facts that the court needs to make a
decision in your case, they have to make and swear an affidavit of their own.

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