I’ve seen some confusion over these recently, as well as a template form that people are finding online which is incorrect, and even courts ordering a position statement when they mean a witness statement!
Briefly, witness statements are your evidence i.e. what you will tell the court you’ve seen and heard, and position statements are your opportunity to say if you agree with what other people are saying should happen, and what you want the court to order.
It sounds simple, i.e. witness statements are about what’s happened in the past, and position statements are what you want to happen now and in the future. But in practice it’s not quite that clear cut.
To start with, when you write a witness statement it’s good practice, and sometimes ordered by the court, to say what you want as the outcome of the proceedings. For example, for your child to live with you and have only supervised contact with their other parent.
Witness statements are usually ordered to be sent to the court and other party in good time before the next hearing, which enables both parties to comment on what each other are asking for in their position statements.
When you write a position statement, you sometimes need to say what’s happened (i.e. include some evidence) to explain why you want the particular order you’re asking for. And because there is usually such a long gap between hearings, often there have been other incidents and events since the last witness statement and you may need to include them in a position statement in order to update the court.
Here’s a table showing the differences between the two types of statement (click on image to read):
I’ve written about these statements previously which you can find here and you’ll find more about statements on page 181 of my book.
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