Your witness statement explained
(With Templates)

TIPS FOR YOUR WITNESS STATEMENT

• Your witness statement has written pages and evidence pages. Please number your written pages.
• Your evidence pages must be attached to the back of your witness statement and labelled, e.g. ‘exhibit 1’, ‘exhibit 2’ and so on. You must do this with all evidence/exhibits. Each separate evidence/exhibit must have their own page.
• Where you want the judge/magistrate to read a sentence in your written pages and then see the evidence immediately after, you must write, e.g. ‘see exhibit 1’, after the sentence. You should also write the page number of the labelled evidence/exhibit page.   
• Use A4 single sided white paper for your witness statement.
• Use a clean looking font such as Arial, Times New Roman and Calibri.
• The recommended font size is 12.
• The recommended line spacing is 1.5.
• The recommended margin space is at least 2.5cm.
• At the top of the first page, you must put the case number, court name, both you and your ex-partner’s names, the type of hearing it is, and the date and time. 
• Please mention if you are the applicant or respondent. 
• If your case is with regards to child arrangements, please mention yours and your ex-partner’s relationship to the child(s).
• Mention that you are a litigant in person if the court is not already aware.
• Write your witness statement in chronological order.
• Divide the statement into sections with each section having a separate heading.
• Number your paragraphs in each section.
• Write down what has happened in detail and try and keep sentences short.
• Write what you want the court to decide at this hearing. 
• Write what directions you want the court to make at this hearing. Please be direct and clear.
• Write why you have made an application to the court if this applies to you.
• Declare if the matter urgent.
• Mention any domestic violence that the court is not already aware of.
• Mention any concerns you have.
• Write what has happened since the last hearing, if there was a last hearing.
• Mention if there are any documents your ex-partner was supposed to send you but didn’t.
• Explain why you have not complied with a court order or court directions if you haven’t.
• Mention any court order or court directions your ex-partner has not complied with.
• Write if you need any further documents from your ex-partner.
• Ask if you need permission to file and gather more evidence.
• Avoid being confrontational, emotional, and harsh.
• Do not write other people’s opinions.
• When you finish your witness statement, you must include a statement of truth at the end – ‘I believe my statement above to be truthful’. You must then sign and date your witness statement. 

HOW SHOULD YOU REFER TO YOUR EX-PARTNER IN YOUR WITNESS STATEMENT?

Normally, you should refer to your ex-partner as the applicant or respondent depending on whichever one they are. We have also seen people refer to their ex-partner by their name (MR, MRS, MS, DR). Please try NOT to refer to your ex-partner as W (wife) or H (husband) as some solicitors firms recommend because we feel it is cold. 

YOU CAN USE OUR I AM LIP WITNESS STATEMENT TEMPLATE 

You will need to produce your own witness statement. 

The team here at I AM L.I.P have produced a witness statement template for you to download and fill in. Once you have filled in it you can print a hard copy. Click on the upper right corner of the document below to access it. Once accessed, we recommend you click the ‘Open Original’ button on the upper right corner to download the document on Microsoft Word, or you can download the document on other applications such as Google Docs. The BLACK writing is part of the template document and should not be altered. The RED writing is where you should edit the template document as it is there to guide you on what to include.

PLEASE NOTE – Our team at I AM L.I.P have produced these templates with the focus being to cater to every type of user regardless of their skill set, technical capabilities, literacy comprehension and level of neurodiversity. We understand that when most people are completing these templates, they can be under immense emotional distress due to the difficult process of divorce. Therefore, these templates are here to make the process easier.