7.2 What are statements?
There are different kinds of statements which need to be filed at court (i.e. submitted to the court) as part of court proceedings. Whatever their name, they are all designed to allow someone to provide different information to the court in a format that is compatible with the law and procedural rules.
Where a court orders a party to file and
Activity 1
In your volunteering, what different types of statements have clients asked you to help them with?
Comment
There are many different types of statements, so your answer will vary from other volunteers. The most common types of statements will be discussed below. If you have identified a different type of statement, you can ask your Service Manager or look online to see what the statement is designed to achieve.
All statements allow the party to explain to the court what their side of the story is and what outcome they want from the proceedings. Statements that clients commonly ask for help with are:
- Witness statements (explaining what the client saw and heard relevant to the proceedings; this often includes what the client’s desired outcome is and why)
- Position Statements (explaining what the client’s desired outcome is and what they agree / disagree with regarding the factual matters in dispute)
- Statements in response to a report (e.g. a report from Cafcass) or other party’s statement.
- Statement in support or defending a Money Claim.
- Statement to suspend a warrant of eviction.
- Scott schedules and summaries (for example, on a Child Arrangements application) to set out clearly the facts which are in dispute
- Formulating questions for cross examination.
The statements used as examples in this module are relevant to Family cases. There are differences between these and Civil cases. There are some resources linked to later in the module you might like to refer to for specific guidance on writing statements in Civil matters or you can ask your Service Manager for guidance.
7.1 Introduction