To fill out a general affidavit, work through the template in order: complete the caption and venue block, write a short opening that identifies you and confirms your personal knowledge, lay out each fact in its own numbered paragraph, attach and label any supporting exhibits, and leave the signature line blank until you are in front of a notary who administers a jurat. Because you sign under penalty of perjury, a false statement carries the same legal risk as lying on the witness stand — up to five years in federal prison, a fine, or both.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 1621 – Perjury Generally Getting it right the first time saves a return trip to the notary and keeps the document from being challenged later.
What to Have Ready Before You Start
Errors and missing details are the main reasons affidavits get rejected. Pull these together first.
- A current or recently expired government-issued photo ID — passport, driver’s license, or state ID card. The name on the ID must match the name you use in the affidavit.
- Your full legal name exactly as it appears on your ID, your current residential address, and your date of birth if the form asks for it.
- The facts you plan to swear to, written out in the order they happened. Every statement must come from your own firsthand knowledge — what you personally saw, did, or experienced. Second-hand information is hearsay, and a judge can strike the entire affidavit or the offending paragraphs if hearsay slips in.2Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Evidence Rule 602 – Need for Personal Knowledge
- Supporting exhibits — receipts, photographs, contracts, emails. Label each one (Exhibit A, Exhibit B, or Exhibit 1, Exhibit 2) and reference the label in the body of the affidavit so a reader can match your claim to the proof.
If the affidavit supports a court motion, the personal-knowledge standard is enforceable: federal summary judgment rules require the affidavit to be based on personal knowledge and limited to facts that would be admissible as evidence.3Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 56 – Summary Judgment
Who Is Allowed to Sign
You need to be legally competent, meaning you understand what the document says and what it means to swear to it. There is no single nationwide minimum age. Some states allow minors to sign if they have sufficient mental capacity to understand the contents and could appear as a witness in court. When a minor lacks that capacity, a competent adult with direct knowledge of the facts signs instead and explains in the document why the minor could not.4Legal Information Institute. 231 Pa Code r 2036 – Affidavits by Minors
If you are signing on behalf of a company or LLC, your signature block should include your name, your title (such as Managing Member or President), and the entity’s full legal name so the reader knows you have authority to bind the organization.
Working Through the Template
Most general affidavit templates — whether from a court clerk’s website, a legal aid organization, or a law library — follow the same layout.
Caption and Venue
If the affidavit is for a court case, the top of the page mirrors the caption from existing case documents: the court name, case number, and names of the parties. Copy this exactly from the most recent filing. If no case exists yet, leave the case number blank or follow the agency’s instructions.
Below or beside the caption sits the venue block, typically two lines identifying the state and county where you are signing. This is not the county where the underlying events happened. It is the county where you physically sit down with the notary. A typical format reads “State of [Your State], County of [Your County].”
Opening Statement
The opening paragraph introduces you: your full legal name, your age or date of birth, your address, and a sentence confirming you have personal knowledge of the facts that follow. Some templates include the phrase “being duly sworn, deposes and says,” which is legal shorthand meaning you are giving this statement under oath.
Numbered Fact Paragraphs
Each fact gets its own numbered paragraph. Keep sentences short and specific. State what happened, when it happened, and who was involved. Avoid opinions, conclusions, and emotional language. A judge wants to know that the rent check was mailed on March 3, not that your landlord is unreasonable. If you are referencing an exhibit, say so directly: “Attached as Exhibit A is a copy of the email I sent on March 3, 2026.”
Signature Block
The last section has a line for your signature, your printed name, and the date. Do not sign yet. The whole point of notarization is that you sign in front of the notary. Below your signature line, the template includes a block for the notary’s signature, printed name, commission expiration date, and seal. If you are signing on behalf of a business, add your title and the entity name directly below your printed name.
Redact Sensitive Information Before Filing
If your affidavit will be filed with a federal court, you are personally responsible for redacting sensitive identifiers before you submit it. Any filing — electronic or paper — that contains a Social Security number, taxpayer identification number, birth date, a minor’s name, or a financial account number must be trimmed to only partial information.5Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 5.2 – Privacy Protection for Filings Made with the Court That means only the last four digits of a Social Security or account number, only the year of a birth date, and only a minor’s initials. The clerk will not catch these for you. If you file an unredacted document, it becomes part of the public record. Many state courts follow similar rules, so check your local filing guidelines even if you are not in federal court.
Getting the Affidavit Notarized
An affidavit requires a specific type of notarization called a jurat. Unlike an acknowledgment, where you simply confirm you signed voluntarily, a jurat means the notary administers an oath, watches you sign, and certifies all of it. You must sign the document in the notary’s presence. Showing up with a pre-signed affidavit makes it invalid for jurat purposes.
What Happens at the Notary
The process has to happen in the right order. The notary checks your identity against a government-issued photo ID. The notary then administers an oath or affirmation, asking you to swear (or affirm, if you prefer a secular option) that everything in the document is true. You sign while the notary watches. Finally, the notary signs, dates the jurat certificate, and applies the official seal or stamp. Notary fees for a single signature vary by state but typically fall in the $5 to $15 range. Banks and credit unions often notarize documents for account holders at no charge.
Remote Online Notarization
If you cannot get to a notary in person, remote online notarization (RON) is available in 47 states and the District of Columbia.6National Association of Secretaries of State. Remote Electronic Notarization You connect with a commissioned notary over a live video call, verify your identity through knowledge-based authentication questions and a photo ID check, then sign electronically while the notary watches on screen. The notary applies a digital seal, and you receive the completed document as a tamper-evident electronic file. Not every receiving party accepts RON documents. Check with the court or agency before going this route.
When You Can Skip the Notary
In many federal proceedings, you can submit an unsworn declaration “under penalty of perjury” that carries the same legal weight as a sworn, notarized affidavit.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1746 – Unsworn Declarations Under Penalty of Perjury Instead of a notary’s jurat, you add this sentence above your signature: “I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct. Executed on [date].” This option does not apply to depositions or oaths that must be taken before a specific official, and many state courts and private parties still require a traditional notarized affidavit. If you are filing in federal court or responding to a federal agency, this shortcut is worth knowing about.
Fixing Mistakes After Notarization
Once you have signed and the notary has applied the seal, you cannot cross out a line and initial the change. Altering a notarized document calls the entire thing into question. The standard fix is to draft a new, corrected affidavit from scratch, sometimes titled “Corrected Affidavit” or “Supplemental Affidavit,” and go through the notarization process again. If the original was already filed with a court, file the corrected version and note that it supersedes the earlier document. Proofread every line carefully before you sit down with the notary.