Affidavits

[Reprobate]

I'm editing my Final Hearing affidavit and I'm sorting through 5 years worth of Word documents of affidavits, diaries, thoughts, notes, etc, etc.... and I have written a SHIT LOAD.

More than I ever imagined or gave myself credit for.

I've stumbled on stuff that is written in detail (my HDD is a gold mine of stuff I've written or save and forgotten about for years later).

So my question is this: my Final Hearing affidavit; should I keep it severely edited and lean (keeping in mind the Magistrate has put the hearing down for 2 hours, considering the other party has so far been a no show) or...

should I go "what the hell!" and copy and paste chronologically and edit for clarity and submit a lengthy manuscript for a drama screenplay?

How much information is too much?

[MC SoD]

For starters, if the previous Affs are in the same case you just "I refer to paragraph 13 of my Affidavit of..." you don't repeat any of that info.

Secondly, have no idea how much info to include. Family Law Affidavits always seem to have a lot of stuff in them you'd never include in any other area of law... maybe Sagacious can help cause I think he might do some work in Family.

[Sagacious]

In the federal magistrates court the "usual" direction is that each party file ands erve on the other an affidavit by each witness. that affidavit is intended to be an updating affidavit since all the other affidavits filed in the proceeding in the Federal Magistrates Court can be relied upon by the parties without the need to reference them in the final affidavit. This is in contrast to the Family Court where the Affidavit of Evidence in Chief for each witness for a final hearing is the only affidavit a party is allowed to rely upon and therefore the tendency is to revisit material previously filed and include that material as part of the final affidavit.

My approach in drafting affidavits (and what I tell all my employed solicitors and para legals to do is this...

1. Identify the parties and their role in the proceedings and relationship to other 'players' in the case.

2. For childrens matters - Use the s.68F(2) Family Law Act factors as headings and write pithy relevant paragraphs concerning what each factor is focussed on as the facts in the particular case allow.

3. When referencing documents quote the relevant passage from the document as well as annexing it to the affidavit (that way the judge is not constantly flicking around the document to read relevant bits stapled to the back of the document.) The usual format for this is:

On <date> I wrote to <so and so> concerning <issue written to so and so about> and sent that correspondence via <post/fax/email/sherpa>. Annexed hereto and marked with the letter <insert identifier(A,B,C...)> which correspondence in part reads:

'blah blah blah blah

4. When making allegations which are generalisations as to a character or parenting trait pick one or two (at most two) illustrative annecdotes revealing the trait/characteristic and depose to that as an observation upon which the conclusion is based.

5. Avoid disparaging the other party.

6. Put objections to conduct in dispassionalte prose.

7. Try to find something positive to say about the other party (in so far as it relates to their relationship to the children) if possible even if it is only something like 'I am sure that <so and so> loves <Billy/Johnny/Sue>, however,......'

8. If the document is long and complicated (which it rarely should be) use headings to identify annecdotes ie. The respondent's first attempt at abducting the children/The choking incident/ Circumstances of the Fourth Breach of the Domestic Violence Order/ etc...

9. don't use complicated or tortuous sentence stucture.

10. try and make paragraphs short and punchy and not longer than 3 or four sentences.

11. Ideally paragraphs should be one sentence long.

Hope this assists.

[Reprobate]

By any chance are you saying that I can refer to the annexures of my interim affidavit?

Rather than photocopying the originals again, have them signed by a JP, another 2 copies made, etc, etc. That will be a big relief.

How do I reference them?

eg: "Annexed to the interim affidavit sworn and filed on 7th April 2005 and marked “C” is a copy of the correspondence from the mother’s solicitor Blah and Blah dated 20 September 2001"?

[Sagacious]

By any chance are you saying that I can refer to the annexures of my interim affidavit?

Rather than photocopying the originals again, have them signed by a JP, another 2 copies made, etc, etc. That will be a big relief.

How do I reference them?

eg: "Annexed to the interim affidavit sworn and filed on 7th April 2005 and marked “C” is a copy of the correspondence from the mother’s solicitor Blah and Blah dated 20 September 2001"?
If were talking Federal Magistrates Court your affidavit needs to be an updating affidavit and you can simply read the other affidavits into the record (it wsould be handy to have a reference aide memoire (map) setting out the relevant paragraphs and annexures of those affidavits to which you wish to refer the Federal Magistrate).

In the Family Court you have to do it all over afresh 1 affudavit only per witness

[Reprobate]

If were talking Federal Magistrates Court your affidavit needs to be an updating affidavit and you can simply read the other affidavits into the record (it wsould be handy to have a reference aide memoire (map) setting out the relevant paragraphs and annexures of those affidavits to which you wish to refer the Federal Magistrate).

In the Family Court you have to do it all over afresh 1 affudavit only per witness
It is the Federal Magistrates Court.

So I won't be needing to do a full blown: "here we go right from the start with every single thing that's deemed relevant to the case and it's big enough to be a drama mini-series manuscript" then?

Damn, I had a list of publishers to send it to after the court date. :p

[Reprobate]

What should I title the updated affidavit?

Do I make reference to the previous affidavit? "Hey Big Guy! Don't forget the stuff written in the other one mmkay!"

[Reprobate]

And do I need to start the amended/updated affidavit with...

I, Blah Blah of 36 Blah Road, Blahmont in the State of New South Wales, make oath and say:-

I am the applicant father.

I was born on 10 Blah 1971 at Sydney. I am 34 years of age.

I was present in Australia as at the date of filing this application.

Or am I throwing myself straight back into it?

[Reprobate]

Am I allowed to submit two affidavits by me?

One is about what's happened since the last affidavit and the other is an interesting look at something that the respondent has been up to that I'd prefer not to get lost in the other lengthier document.

Kinda like splitting a thread.

To deal with two seperate issues.

The Magistrate won't go crook at me for doing an AKG (http://forums.zgeek.com/showpost.php?p=641381&postcount=54) will he? :p