While the word “affidavit” itself has its origins in the mid 1500s, the best definitions of affidavit are more recent and take into account modern refinements such as the ability for a non-religious person to make an affidavit.

Affidavits have been used in court proceedings for nearly 200 years, so it is smart thinking to look at those cases to find many very good and comprehensive definitions of the word “affidavit”.

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A good place to start is Black’s Law Dictionary, which has a definition of affidavit that has been quoted by courts for nearly 100 years. Black’s is the most widely used law dictionary in the United States and the most widely cited law book in the world! So it is not surprising that Black’s authoritative definition of affidavit has been quoted with approval by courts many times.

Black’s Law Dictionary definition of affidavit

Black’s Law Dictionary defines an affidavit as “A written or printed declaration or statement of facts, made voluntarily, and confirmed by the oath or affirmation of the party making it, taken before an officer having authority to administer such oath.”

There’s a good example of the Black’s Law Dictionary definition of affidavit being quoted by a court in the 1934 case of Amtorg Trading Corporation v United States 71 F. 2d 524, a decision of the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals. The Court added that this definition was confirmed by 1 Words and Phrases, First Series, p. 240; Bouvier’s Law Dictionary (1897), vol. 1, p. 111; Corpus Juris, vol. 2, p. 317 and Webster’s New International Dictionary (1932).

More recent examples of United States federal and state courts quoting the Black’s definition of affidavit as the “legal definition” of an affidavit include Granada v. United States, 51 F.3d 82, 85 (7th Cir. 1995), Kennedy v. State, Miss: Court of Appeals 2019 (No. 2016-CP-00755-COA) and Wilcher v. State, 863 So.2d 776, 834 (¶ 209) (Miss.2003) .

Other US definitions of “affidavit”

The word “affidavit” is defined in the second edition of American Jurisprudence (3 Am. Jur. 2d Affidavits § 1) in the following terms: “Any voluntary ex parte statement reduced to writing, and sworn to or affirmed before a person legally authorized to administer an oath or affirmation.”

Again, this definition is widely accepted in the United States. It has been cited in State of Wisconsin v Morgan No. 99-0993. The American Jurisprudence definition is also cited in Ballentine’s Law Dictionary, which itself was cited with approval in In re Beecher, 50 F. Supp. 530 – Dist. Court, ED Washington.

Overseas definitions of affidavit

An earlier definition of an affidavit was provided in England by writer Matthew Bacon in his seminal work A New Abridgement of the Law, widely known as Bacon’s Abridgement. In 1 Bac Abr 124 (the most recent English edition, published in 1832) Bacon stated that:

“An affidavit is an oath in writing signed by the party deposing, sworn before and attested by him who had authority to administer the same.”

The definition of an affidavit given in Bacon’s Abridgement dates from a time prior to the acceptability of affirming as well as swearing an affidavit, which is why the definition does not refer to the two alternatives.

The Bacon’s Abridgement definition has been cited in relatively modern times in Canada by Wachowich J of the Alberta Supreme Court in R v Nichols [1975] 5 WWR 600; 1975 CanLII 250 (AB QB), citing R v Phillips (1908), 9 WLR. 634, 14 BCR 194, 14 CCC 239 as its source. At the time of that decision an affidavit in Canada could not be affirmed; instead the person wishing to give evidence in a secular manner was required to made a statutory declaration (see 14 Alta. L. Rev. 362 (1976)).

The Bacon’s Abridgement definition has also been cited in Australia by Barrett J in Fastlink Calling Pty Ltd v Macquarie Telecom Pty Ltd [2008] NSWSC 299 as a historical starting point (the definition was approved more recently in Bobolas v Waverley Council [2016] NSWCA 139).

His Honour then moved to explain statutory changes that had broadened the definition to encompass affidavits that were made by affirmation as well as sworn by oath.

Conclusion

I hope the information above has assisted you with your search for the legal definition of the word “affidavit”. Certainly, after 200 years, it is clear what the legal definition of an affidavit is!

The expressions stated above are really all different ways of saying the same thing. It is pleasing to say that there is no genuine controversy at law about the definition of an affidavit.