New statements of truth and court forms

6 April 2020 will see the statement of truth for a number of documents change under the 113^th CPR Practice Direction update such that those documents will need to contain this expanded statement:

[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.' 

 For further detail on this development, including the documents to which this applies, see here.

However, not least due to the impact on workload pressures of responding to the impact of COVID-19, it is understood that court forms are unlikely to be updated so as to include this new statement of truth in readiness for that 6 April implementation date.

In these circumstances, the CPRC has:

• noted that many court documents affected by this development, for example witness statements, are, in fact, created ‘at source’ and are, therefore, unaffected by this delay in relation to the court forms, and
• confirmed that where the use of prescribed forms is necessary, the current, unamended, forms can still be used. More particularly:

• editable versions of court forms can be updated with the expanded statement of truth—Rule 4(2) and para 1.7 of Practice Direction 4 provide, respectively, that: ‘A form may be varied by the court or a party if the variation is required by the circumstances of a particular case’ and ‘The forms may be modified as the circumstances require provided that all essential information, especially information or guidance which the forms gives to the recipient, is included’—such that practitioners with editable versions of a CPR form can reflect the expanded statement of truth wording on the form themselves
• it would not be reasonable to prevent the use of an existing uneditable form, which is yet to be updated officially with the expanded statement of truth and issued as a revised prescribed form.  As such, where it is necessary to use a prescribed form, parties will have to use the forms as prescribed