10 Steps in Filling out and Writing an Affidavit

Witnesses, married couples, property owners, and even students are knowledgeable about the purpose of having an affidavit form. This document often comprises multiple numbers of pages especially if it is used for court sessions and dealing with legal matters. Although most people have seen and used an affidavit form even once in their lives, there are several who are not capable of writing an affidavit and does not know when to use this document.

There are two papers which are known as affidavits, a legal affidavit form, and an affidavit letter. These documents vary on how they are presented and how they are completed by the affiant. The affidavit form is a ready-made document provided by the court or the organization where the form will be addressed and used, while the affidavit letter is a document made from scratch by the affiant either by using a pen and paper or to generate texts and print it out from a computer. Nonetheless, here are the steps on how an individual, or an affiant, can fill out and write these documents:

Step 1: Determine what sort of affidavit you will need. Affidavit forms vary on what an affiant will need. To know what type of affidavit you will be creating or filling out, you may search online, look for the appropriate document and sample affidavit forms from your library, or ask a legit attorney of what you may need. In an affidavit form, you can distinguish the type by looking at the titles on top of the form, while in an affidavit letter, you will need to indicate the title such as an “Affidavit of Support for Finances” or maybe a more generalized term which is a “Personal Affidavit Statement”.

Step 2: Write the date on the affidavit form. Dates are significant for any document since this serves as the basis for the length of the process and to determine whether a case has been in a delay or moving at a fast pace. The dates will also be helpful for the people who will be handling the documents especially in courthouses where cases and trials will need to be plotted in a schedule form.

Step 3: Indicate the country where you are filing the affidavit. Though it is quite obvious that the document will be heading to the nearest court in your area, you should always state what country and the location of the specific courthouse where the affidavit will be used. This is to assure that the documents will be assigned to designated areas and not be misused in a different courthouse.

Step 4: State your basic and general information as the affiant. The general information that you should include would be your full legal name, age, occupation, and your relationship with the other parties involved in the case. Some affidavit forms such as an affidavit of death will require your permanent address since it is vital in knowing if you have been living with the decedent or not. The address will also serve as the basis on where the trial will be held to solve the issues and the case.

Step 5: Start a paragraph. Regardless if you are filling out an affidavit form or making an affidavit letter, you will have to write a statement about attesting that you are stating factual information. This area of the form will be the start of your factual storytelling about the incident that you are standing as the witness. To assure that you will not be making any error, make a draft of the incident and plot it on the form whenever you have done a finalization.

Step 6: Enlist the facts that you are going to support with your affidavit. State the facts as a first person since you are the affiant and you are the person who witnessed the incident. In the case of filing a lost affidavit, write down what document has been lost and should be replaced by the courthouse.

Step 7: Describe the facts. Each fact should be stated in a paragraph to fully support your claims. However, the way that you present your facts should be related to the intention of your affidavit. You may use a table for indicating the list of your assets and their values in a financial affidavit form, and for listing the vehicle properties required in a vehicle affidavit.

Step 8: State the titles of your attachments as your exhibits. The term “exhibits” refers to the pieces of evidence that you are going to present as a supporting set of papers for your claims and statements. For criminal prosecutions, exhibits include the used guns and their ownership transfer documents, witness statements, and even photographic evidence.

Step 9: End the affidavit with an oath. The oath must be based on the regulations of your state. Commonly, this will include the possible outcome that you may be facing if your proofs and supporting statements are not valid and will be deemed as false documents. With the oath, you are assuring the court that as an affiant you have stated everything that you know about the other parties, the incident, and the case where you are currently involved.

Step 10: Affix your signature and let the notary public notarized the form. Before heading to the office of the notary public, you should bring a valid identification in order to assure the notary public that you are needing his notarization for legal purposes. A notary public will only notarize a document if the user of the form is present and have given sufficient identification. Before the notary public will notarize the affidavit, you will have to affix your signature. However, keep in mind that not any signature will be valid in any document especially when it is a legal form to be used in a court preceding. The signature that you should affix is the one that you always and have used in your business forms and property titles, as well as your driver’s license.

With the aid of these steps, making an affidavit letter and completing an affidavit form will be an easy piece of cake for any affiant. You can also add a statement of confidentiality in the document as an agreement. And though not all affidavit documents have an area and an attachment stating a confidentiality agreement, the affidavit should always be handled with confidentiality and should be kept between the involved parties and the court.