Changes to the Statement of Truth and Witness Statements
From 6 April 2020, the language of and the rules around the Statement of Truth and Witness Statements will change.
Statements of Truth will now require the maker to expressly acknowledge that proceedings may be brought off the back of a false statement made without a honest belief in its truth, The Statement of Truth will also need to be (i) be in the witness’s own language; and (ii) dated with the date on which it was signed.
CPR 32PD.18(5) has been inserted, so that a witness statements must state the process by which it has been prepared, “for example, face-to-face, over the telephone, and/or through an interpreter”. Depending on the relevant facts, CPR 32PD.18(5) may be complied with by including wording such as:
“This Witness Statement has been prepared through face-to-face discussions [and telephone and email exchanges] with my solicitors.”
An updated version of 22PD.2 Form of the statement of truth, showing the updates is set out below. A copy of the 113th Update – Practice Direction Amendments can be found here.
22PD.2 Form of the statement of truth
2.1 The form of the statement of truth verifying a statement of case, a response, an application notice or a notice of objections should be as follows –
“[I believe] [the (claimant or as may be) believes] that the facts stated in this [name document being verified] are true. I understand that proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against anyone who makes, or causes to be made, a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest belief in its truth.”
2.2 The form of the statement of truth verifying a witness statement should be as follows (and provided in the language of the witness statement) –
“I believe that the facts stated in this witness statement are true. I understand that proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against anyone who makes, or causes to be made, a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest belief in its truth.”
2.2A The form of the statement of truth verifying a costs budget should be as follows –
“This budget is a fair and accurate statement of incurred and estimated costs which it would be reasonable and-proportionate for my client to incur in this litigation.”
2.3 Where the statement of truth is contained in a separate document, the document containing the statement of truth must be headed with the title of the proceedings and the claim number. The document being verified should be identified in the statement of truth as follows –
- claim form: “the claim form issued on [date]”,
- particulars of claim: “the particulars of claim issued on [date]”,
- statement of case: “the [defence or as may be] served on the [name of party] on [date]”,
- application notice: “the application notice issued on [date] for [set out the remedy sought]”,
- witness statement: “the witness statement filed on [date] or served on [party] on [date]”.
2.4 The statement of truth must be in the witness’s own language.
2.5 A statement of truth must be dated with the date on which it was signed.