The world of process serving is often full of interpretation – it should be done like that – it should be done like this….
Fortunately, we have an up to date elearn process server repository and I keep it bang on the money…
One of my students used one of the templates on the elearn platform and received the following from a fellow member of his trade body…
Thank you for this. The certificate “statement of truth” was updated a year ago to
“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.” Would you please amend the certificate to read the new statement of truth.
I began to look at matters and noticed that the EX550 on the Gov.Uk website had not updated with the, “New declaration”, indeed none of the usual, downloadable proformas had updated at all…
I traced back to the first time I heard about the “Update”…
An email circulated around a trade group on the 16th April 2020, it reads:
I received the following communication from a solicitor client today, as follows:
The 113th Practice Direction (PD) Update was published on 6 February 2020. The changes to PD 22 include that the statement of truth in witness statements must include a warning that contempt proceedings may be brought for giving a statement of truth without an honest belief in its truth. With effect from 6 April 2020, the following wording should be included in Witness Statements:
“I believe 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.”
This guidance can be found at paragraph 2 here:
- https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part22/pd_part22
- https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/pdf/update/cpr-113th-pd-update.pdf
I’ve received this update because I take multiple statements for this particular client but the links are worth checking as there are changes to a cross section of documents.
A Member
I replied, on the 7th May 2021
Good Afternoon Group,
“I believe 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.”
Process servers now incorporate the above-mentioned “Declaration” into their Statements, Certificates and Affidavits. To the extent that some are zealously forcing their subcontractors to adopt the declaration, across the board…
The proformas that you can download from the Ministry Of Justice websites – have not been updated with this affirmation / declaration.
The industry needs clarification as the practice directions might not apply as:
These amendments follow the Court of Appeal judgment in Liverpool Victoria Insurance Company Limited v Dr Asef Zafar [2019] EWCA 392 (Civ) which concerned the sentencing of an expert witness who had signed a false statement of truth, amending his opinion on the prognosis of a claimant, based only upon the request of his instructing solicitor.
It may only apply to “Expert witnesses” – not process servers.
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