Length of Affidavit-

[Madagascar Madness]

Hi all...

what would you say is a reasonable affidavit length??
Currently have a friend who is in family court and his is currently 20 pages!
Our lawyer said that affidavits could only be 10.???

asking for a friend ;0)

 

[Jake Matherson]

Hey,

If you're applying to the federal circuit court my understanding is the case is supposed to be more simple and straight forward therefore the affidavit will be shorter i.e 10 pages.

If your case is complex and you're submitting quality information and applying to the Family Court of Australia I can tell you that i submitted 60 pages of affidavit +300 pages of annexes yesterday.

No legal knowledge just a bloke trying to get his son back.

Regards,
Jake.

 

[thatbloke]

No. 2 of 2017 Interim Family Law Proceedings (from 1 January 2018) - Federal Circuit Court of Australia

 

[Rod]

Note the above link is for interim hearings. Note sure there's a limit for initiating applications.

I note the OP hasn't said whether his affidavit is for an initiating, interim or final hearing.

 

[thatbloke]

Note the above link is for interim hearings. Note sure there's a limit for initiating applications

I note the OP hasn't said whether his affidavit is for an initiating, interim or final hearing.

I have been told on good authority that the 10 page limit counts for applications and responses.

 

[Rod]

Hmmm, I'd heard there's a limit on how much you can submit through the online portal, but either way I don't know.

10 pages of affidavit/5 annexes doesn't seem enough when there is parenting and property matters to cover.

I'd be trusting what the lawyer says in this regard. He's the one needing to make the submission. He's the one wanting to keep the judge onside and not annoy them with reams of material that might be relevant to Relationships Australia but has no place in a family law context.

 

[thatbloke]

Even if you take a aside the rules you really need to be careful about how long you make your affidavits

Affidavits need to be in a format and of a size that makes the reader want to continue reading it and not put it down

In my experience there is often vast amounts of words that can be trimmed and cut and written in a different way to keep the size down

You have to remember also the affidavits are only meant to point towards evidence and that they are not for telling a story that isn't backed by a piece of physical evidence

They need to be thought of as a short story rather than a novel. I have lost count of the number of times I have seen people told off for long pointless affidavits, including lawyers

Surprisingly the filing limit on the portal is 100 Pages including annexures but if you are even contemplating filing anywhere near the amount of pages you need to rethink what you are submitting

 

[Nonfiction]

The information in your affidavit should only include the evidence on which you intend to rely on to support your application (orders you are seeking). If you are only seeking for example a few Interim orders then your affidavit will be much shorter than if, for instance, you are seeking both Interim and Final orders in your application.

At times judges will make directions specifying maximum length.

I think > > > this judgement < < < relating to an “extreme-sized” affidavit, of retired former FM/Judge David Halligan (whom I have been told was a straight shooter with a lot of tolerance for litigants in person but zero tolerance for laziness, incompetence, dishonesty and waisting time/resources) would likely sum up the general attitude of many judges to lengthy affidavits.

Note at paragraph 5, Halligan mentions how little of the affidavit will likely be relied on... “That is a totally unacceptable approach with a document comprising five volumes and 733 pages, less than one sixth of which will ultimately be relied on.”