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Commissioners for Oaths

In UK law, a Commissioner for Oaths is a person appointed by the Lord Chancellor with power to administer oaths or take affidavits. All practising solicitors have these powers but must not use them in proceedings in which they are acting for any of the parties or in which they have an interest. These powers granted are to administer oaths, take affidavits and statutory declarations.

This is an appointment automatically granted to certain legal professionals who are in practice in their respective profession or to some others because of their particular position or role in the legal system.

The exact definition of Commissioner of Oaths in Oxford’s Dictionary is: “A solicitor authorized to administer an oath to a person making an affidavit.”

However, sometimes this definition is viewed to be misleading as it suggests that only solicitors alone are Commissioners for Oaths. But this certainly isn’t the case, with the following professions able to perform the functions of a Commissioner of Oaths:

- Power Of Attorney
- Change Of Name Deed
- Certification Of Documents
- Statutory Declaration
- Affidavits

Hence, Worldwide Solicitors are automatically Commissioners for Oaths and have powers to administer oaths, take affidavits and statutory declarations.

POWER OF ATTORNEY

A lasting power of attorney (LPA) is a legal document that lets you (the ‘donor’) appoint one or more people (known as ‘attorneys’) to guide you in the decision-making process or even so, make decisions on your behalf. This gives you more control over what happens to you if, for example, you have an accident or an illness which does not permit you to make decisions at a time when required (you may ‘lack mental capacity’). However, there do exist some limitations to it. For example, you are legally obligated to be 18 or over and you must have mental capacity – the ability to make your own decisions – when you make your LPA. There are 2 types of LPA:

• Health and welfare
• Property and financial affairs

CHANGE OF NAME DEED

If you intend to change your name, you require a Deed Poll which is a legal document that proves a change of name. You may change any part of your name, add, remove part of your name or hyphens, or even change the way your name is spelt. At Worldwide Solicitors, this service is available, and we can draft for you a Change of Name Deed, and/or witness signatures of the deponent on the Change of Name Deed.

CERTIFICATION OF DOCUMENTS

Certification of a document involves signing and dating of a document’s true copy by a professional, such as a solicitor. This is an obligatory requirement in many areas. For example, you may be required to have a document certificated when applying for a bank account.

Documents that can be certified include:

• Passports
• Photocard driving licences
• Letters from a government department
• Bank/building society or credit card statements
• Gas, electricity, or council tax bills
• Letters from a hospital/doctor

STATUTORY DECLARATION

A statutory declaration is a legal document and is similar to a statement made under oath, only difference being that it is not sworn. Statutory declarations are mostly used to allow a person to affirm something to be true and grant validity to a document to satisfy legal requirements and obligations in the absence of other evidence. They are thus somewhat identical to affidavits.

Depending on jurisdiction, statutory declarations can be used for:

• Declarations of identity, nationality, marital status, etc. when documentary evidence is unavailable.
• Declaring the intention to change one’s name.
• Affirming the provenance and nature of goods for export or import.
• Bank/building society or credit card statements
• Statements of originality for patent applications.

AFFIDAVITS

An affidavit is a written sworn statement of fact voluntarily made by an affiant or deponent under an oath or affirmation administered by a person authorized to do so by law. Such statement is witnessed as to the authenticity of the affiant’s or deponent’s signature by a taker of oaths, such as a notary public or commissioner of oaths.