During your legal proceedings, you may have heard your lawyer, or the court, talk about a ‘statutory declaration'. Or you may have be asked to make one by an employer, an insurance company, or by a government department or agency.
But what is a statutory declaration? What are the rules relating to making one? And what may be the consequences for making a false one?
Here are the answers to those questions:
What is a statutory declaration?
A statutory declaration is a written statement which you swear, affirm or declare is true.
No one can make a statutory declaration on your behalf.
You must make your statutory declaration in the presence of an ‘authorised witness'.
There are two types of statutory declarations – Commonwealth, state and territory.
