How do you write an affidavit?

Some evidence is spoken aloud in court, and some evidence is presented in writing. Written evidence is called an affidavit.

An affidavit is your statement of facts about your case – your evidence. You sign the bottom of the statement to confirm that what you've written is true.

A good affidavit has all the important information a judge needs to make a decision.

There are some rules about how to write an affidavit.

What do you say in an affidavit?

The affidavit is your evidence. You must:

• tell the truth,
• stick to the facts, not opinions, and
• only include things that are relevant (related) to your case.

Tell the truth

If the judge believes your affidavit is false or misleading:

• they won't accept it as evidence, and
• they might not believe other evidence you bring to court.

Stick to the facts

Focus on facts that you know about first-hand. That means you write down what you:

• saw,
• heard,
• did, or
• said.

You can talk about what you know from second-hand information, but you have to be able to show that this information is reliable. Have the person you got the information from write an affidavit too, if possible.

If you write down what you heard another person say, you must also 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). For example:
  • Sometime in the summer of 2021, I heard my ex-father-in-law talking about my child's mother getting a big raise and buying a new car. I saw the mother driving a new car later that summer.
  • My child's mother is very close to her father, and he would know about her finances and new job.

If you write down what another person said to you, you must also write down:

• the name of the person,
• the date when they told you (or your best memory of that date if you're not sure), and
• that you believe what they said is true. For example:
  • My ex-father-in-law told me that I should not go after the mother for more money just because she got a big raise.
  • My child's mother is very close to her father, and he would know about her finances and new job.

You can write down

• what your child said to you,
• what you overheard them say, or
• what you found out from other people like teachers, counsellors, friends, or other parents.

Courts often let people do this so they don't need to call the child as a witness. For example:

• The teacher at school told me that my child often has no lunch when her dad brings her to school and looks like she is very tired.

If someone has first-hand knowledge of the facts that the court needs to make a decision in your case, encourage them to write an affidavit of what they know. For example, if they are a neighbour and saw the father and child coming home very late whenever the child was with the father.

Writing affidavit statements

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

Stay calm and fair

Don't use opinions or conclusions, even if they're based on facts. For example:

• Write: When she arrived, she smelled strongly of alcohol and was slurring her words.
• Instead of: She was drinking before she arrived at the house.

If you had an emotional reaction to something that happened, explain how and why you felt that way. Don't use disrespectful language. For example:

• Write: His new boyfriend has stayed at the house overnight while my child was there. I was not happy about this because I have never met the boyfriend.
• Instead of: I was shocked to discover his new boyfriend had stayed overnight. He seems to love dating more than his child.

Don't argue

• Write: They're three months behind in their child support payments. They see the children three times during the week and every other weekend.
• Instead of: It's unfair that they get to see the kids even though they're behind in their child support payments.

Don't use words like "always," "never," or "all the time"

• Write: The father often cancels without notice or doesn't come for his visits with our son. The log I keep shows that this happens about 50 percent of the time. Our son looks forward to these visits and gets upset for days after his father misses a visit.
• Instead of: The father never shows up for visits. He is a terrible father who deliberately hurts our child.

Don't guess about someone's state of mind

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

Don't accuse someone of lying or stealing

• Write: I had $40 in my wallet on the table by the front door. I noticed it was gone after they picked up the children.
• Instead of: They took $40 from my wallet.

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.

Be organized and tidy

See What to include in an affidavit or bring to court to help you organize your information.

Use headings and subheadings to put related information together.

• 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.

Stay focused

• Your affidavit mustn't be longer than 25 pages.
• Only include information that can be used to prove or disprove an important fact or issue in your case. Don't include every detail.
• Information is considered relevant only if it helps you figure out:
  • what to include in the background section and
  • what's relevant to your case.

What do the forms look like?

The affidavits look different for each court. See our Court forms page to find links to blank PDF forms that you can download and fill in.

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

Swear the affidavit

Courthouse staff will swear or affirm your affidavit, usually for free. Call your local courthouse to find out if they'll do this for you. Or you can pay a lawyer, notary public, or commissioner for taking affidavits to swear or affirm your affidavit. See Who can swear an affidavit for more information.

If 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 licence you can use a passport, permanent residency card, or BCID.

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.

Exhibits (your evidence)

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

• 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 receipt, for example. A character reference (a letter from someone saying you're a good person) isn't a proper exhibit, because it’s an opinion, not a fact.

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 father that said he would not be taking the children over Christmas break as we had agreed. A printout of that email is attached to this affidavit as Exhibit A.
• Daughter has been doing well in school and I attach her report cards for the 2021 school year as Exhibit B.

Just like affidavits, exhibits must be short and to the point. The judge can only look at what's relevant. If you have a long document, find the most important part and just refer to that.

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.

When you take the affidavit to be sworn, take all your exhibits too. The commissioner has to stamp and sign each exhibit to certify it.

Don't include:

• explicit pictures, photos, or videos of anyone's genitals, breasts, or buttocks, or pictures or photos of them taking part in sexual acts:
  • if you need to refer to anything explicit, describe the picture or video in your affidavit and the court will decide if they want to see the image or video
  • if someone has put an image of you in their affidavit you can ask the court to seal it (make it private) so that only you and the judge can see it
• any type of electronics, such as a USB key (flash drive) or any other type of electronic storage device