Who must sign a statutory declaration?

I act in a litigation matter. Neither the declarant nor a commissioner for oaths has signed a statutory declaration that is evidence in the proceedings. Is it a requirement that statutory declarations must be signed by both parties?

Yes. Although the Statutory Declarations Act 1835 does not specifically state that a statutory declaration has to be signed by the declarant or the commissioner, the requirement to sign a statutory declaration can be derived from a number of other sources.

An affidavit requires a jurat. The jurat must:

• be signed by all deponents
• be completed and signed by the person before whom the affidavit was sworn, whose name and qualification must be printed beneath his signature, and
• contain the full address of the person before whom the affidavit was sworn

An affidavit is taken to include a declaration and ‘sworn’ (ie ‘swear’) is taken to mean declare (Schedule 1 of the Interpretation Act 1978).

Commissioners for oaths and solicitors are required to state the place and date where an affidavit or oath is taken or made (section 5 of the Commissioners for Oaths Act 1889; section 183(4) of the Legal Services Act 2007).

These acts refer to ‘oath or affidavit’, which includes a statutory declaration.

Irrespective of statutory requirements, by convention, the signature block/jurat used for affidavits has been used for statutory declarations, replacing the word ‘sworn’ by ‘declared’.

For more information, see Execution of Documents (4th edition), which is available to purchase from our online bookshop.