4 Things You Should Know About Statutory Declaration

A lot of people are always convicted of offences in courts of law or suffer losses that they would have otherwise abated if they knew how statutory declarations could play to their advantage. So, what is a statutory declaration? A statutory declaration is a statement made to prove the existence of a fact or facts. It is a formal statement made to affirm that a given fact is true to the best knowledge of the person making the pronouncement. Below are things you should have at your fingertips regarding statutory declarations.


  • A statutory declaration can be made by anyone who needs to prove the truthfulness of a fact or facts


Anyone in need of demonstrating the truthfulness of any given specifications has the right to make a statutory declaration. A few examples where the legal document can play handy include; when a person wants to change his or her names and adopt new legally recognized names; when a person did not receive a notice of his or her driving penalties that accumulated over time as a result of failure to address the stated charges; financial institutions wishing to transfer money to person(s) legally entitled to deal with the estates of a dead person; and persons or parties willing to declare the originality of their items as part of a patent application.


  • It must be witnessed by either a Solicitor, Justice of Peace, Commissioner for Oaths, or Notary Public


When making a statutory declaration, it must be witnessed by either a Solicitor, Justice of Peace, Commissioner for Oaths, or Notary Public. Though not a mandatory requirement, either of the above parties may ask you to make the pronouncements holding a religious text such as a Bible or Quran.  Being a legal document recognized in the court of law, you should be careful to ensure that the party you chose to witness your statutory declaration includes details highlighting the protocols used in ascertaining the stated facts to make your arguments impartial.


  • Statutory declarations are used to satisfy a legal requirement or regulation when no any other pieces of evidence are available


Statutory declarations are not usually used in court cases. However, they serve as the best option when there are no any other pieces of evidence available for a given tribunal. Despite how rare they might be in court cases, they can still be used to satisfy a legal requirement in a tribunal in the event that there are no any other pieces of evidence available. To back them up, statutory declarations must be completely truthful and verifiable to ensure that they remain valid on impartial grounds.


  •  You can include annexures in your statutory declarations


Finally, if you want to include documents supporting your pronouncements, you can go ahead and attach them as annexures on your statutory declaration. It is advisable that you provide a brief description of the annexures you will be attaching in text; in fact, it should be clearly stated that it forms part of the statutory declaration compilation. You could even go ahead and independently identify them by index letters such as ‘A’. ‘B’, and ‘C’. Remember, a statutory declaration can always be your way out of a tribunal.


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