A witness statement needs to take a particular format if it is to be used as evidence. It is essential that your statement is signed and dated. Each paragraph must be numbered. The last sentence must be “The contents of this witness statement are true“.
If you would like to submit a witness statement either come to the legal tent located next to Tent City University at St Paul’s Cathedral. Alternatively, you could email it to occupylsxevictionlegal@gmail.com or post it to our solicitor: Karen Todnor, Kaim Todnor, 11 Bolt Court, London, EC4A 3DQ. Please write evidential and personal elements separately but in the same statement as shown in the picture above. Examples of an evidential statement would be (if applicable):
- who you are
- when you arrived at St Paul’s
- whether you are a resident, part-time participant, observer, tourist etc
- details of your involvement in working groups, general assemblies or other activities
- observations within the working groups, general assemblies and more generally of the camp
- events which were important to you
It should be factual and to the point as if you were detailing a chronological series of events. If you refer to a particular piece of evidence which you have submitted, ensure the evidence has a particular reference and that the reference corresponds with your statement.
A personal statement will allow you to go into far more detail about your reasons for being involved in the Occupy movement. This is your opportunity to explain to the court and the world what Occupy London and the international movement means for you. You may wish to mention:
- your personal background
- what motivated you to become involved in the movement
- what the movement has given you
- where you see the movement going – what your personal objectives are
It is important to remember that the City of London Corporation are the claimants in this case and that they are saying that they are not against our right to protest but rather that they object to our using semi-permanent structures and bedding on site. As such, please bear in mind that our defence case is that the tents are fundamental to the contributed enjoyment of your right to protest.
There are no financial consequences of providing a witness statement. You may be asked to attend court if your witness statement is of particular use.
Separately to your witness statement you will need to give your full name and contact details. This is so that we can contact you if we want to use your witness statement. Your details will not be included in the statement and will be secured off site each night.
The photograph above is an example of an almost perfectly formatted witness statement – ideally the line spacing would be double spaced!
Timetable
Please submit your statement as soon as possible. The High Court has ordered that all our evidence has to be submitted by a certain date. However, if we receive your statement very close to that date, it is difficult for us to process it. Our solicitor has to digest the statements we have received, choose the best ones, contact the witness personally to make arrangements to have them attend court and compile a bundle of all our evidence. Obviously, this all takes some time. Therefore, we are asking everyone to get their statements to us by the end of 6th December 2011! The deadline for our solicitor to submit evidence to the High Court is 12th December 2011. If you really can’t get your statement to us by 6th, please do submit it anyway but remember, this will make our case preparation much harder than it needs to be.
thanks for this Duncan. now you have reached the lofty heights of olsx FB endorsement! Clear and to the point. Please remind us poor saps of the timescale (I believe all our documents need to be submitted by 12/12 for the case to be heard from 19/12). Solidarity
Good point saskia. Will add timescales to the post itself. Thanks for the suggestion!
Is this for real ????, you moan about under cover police … and then give away this amount of information …. are you a under cover copper ?
Clearly not. This is a request for witnesses to come forward to defend Occupy London. Aside from guidance as to the format required for a witness statement, nothing of substance is “given away”. The guidance was approved by a solicitor before going out and has been repeated at occupylsx.org, after I posted it here.
If we don’t have witnesses coming forward, we don’t have a defence. Luckily they are now coming forward and giving statements in a format that can be used as evidence. Presumably you would prefer not to defend Occupy London?
following this is an admission of liability DO NOT follow this advise is my reccomendation
Where is the admission you speak of? This guidance was approved by Occupy London’s solicitor before I published it and has since been republished at occupylsx.org – your advice is worthless.
A couple of things i’ve noticed, and something you Londoners can bring up at the site – He is no longer a practicing barrister. Why? Why did he stop? Someone needs to find out this information. Another thing, he wants all of your information yet he doesn’t disclose his own full name. He just goes by the psuedonym of “Scrapper Duncan”. This must be questioned! DO NOT GIVE A STATEMENT. EVERY LAWYER KNOWS THA T YOU NEVER DO THIS.
You haven’t noticed much have you? Read and learn, read and learn. I make no secret of my name. It is Duncan Roy. What is your real name, FrauleinSuzyDivine?
The reasons I stopped practising at the Bar are complex. I have mentioned them briefly elsewhere on this blog and will be explaining them at length in due course. Any lawyer will confirm that statements are the crucial vehicle by which evidence is given in court. Without a statement, there is no evidence. I want to see Occupy London successful in its defence against the case brought by the City of London Corporation. In order to be successful, we will need evidence.
it sounds more like confessions that you are after.
It doesn’t sound like anything of the sort but if giving a statement in the High Court confirming that I have supported Occupy London amounts to a confession to you, fine, I am pleased to confess!
No solicitor would behave in this way. Not even a first year law student. You are working for the police because every person in law knows you don’t make a statement, for any reason, until or unless it’s being sworn as an Affidavit in person with a lawyer. No attorney will allow communications about a court matter to be posted on the internet. They would only advertise their firm contact information so interested parties can get in touch in person, confidentially.
Furthermore no court is interested in the information you’re asking for. The matter of law being decided is NOT if the Occupy Movement is legitimate, but rather whether property rights should be elevated over human rights (trespassing vs. the right to demonstrate). Our human rights relate to freedom of speech and/or expression. It DOES NOT matter what motivated us to speak or what the words are, so long as they’re conveyed within criminal and civil laws (ex. not racist, not sexist, not a threat like blowing up the stock exchange). So asking someone why they joined Occupy or what their next plans are is totally irrelevant – except to police infiltrators and agent provocateurs!
I’d like everyone to watch the following video to understand why you don’t offer statement. It’s a seminar given by a law professor/criminal attorney, in concert with the police. Law enforcement itself will explain what they do with your information and you’ll find it most illuminating. It puts this fellow’s blog to shame and proves he’s trying to entrap you.
Although I know it’s based in the US, it is valid anywhere we have the “right to remain silent”, freedom of speech and/or freedom to assemble and/or freedom of expression. It’s covered by the US 5th Amendment in their Bill of Rights. It’s covered by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in Section 11. I’m quite positive England has similar rights and therefore this applies to you.
You’ve muddled up criminal law with civil law, the American jurisdiction with the English and paranoia with the fact that Occupy London is organising its defence to the eviction proceedings brought by the City of London Corporation. Occupy London will have to defend the various claims brought by the City, which are more in number than those which you list. You can read their claim for yourself – they’ve published it on their website.
As to your allegations that I am either a police infiltrator or an agent provocateur: neither is true. I have been working inside Occupy London’s legal team from the first day of the Occupation, as I have explained repeatedly on this blog of mine. Do some background reading. Check your facts.
Incidentally, the right to remain silent has been seriously watered down in this country, in my humble opinion. Let’s be clear – this is outrageous. The caution you are given on arrest reflects the fact that you no longer have the right to remain silent. I want the right to silence restored in all its democratic glory! However, it is only relevant to a criminal prosecution. The City is not bringing a criminal case against Occupy London; we are defending civil litigation.
i dont have a name.. im commonly called Alan, but i dont have a name
names are corporate identities of which i have no association with… my birth certificate MR ALL CAPITAL LETTERS is a seperate ‘PERSON’/'CORPORATION’ who is not me and to who Acts and Statutes apply ….. there is only common law … acts and statutes are legislative rules of society given the ‘force of law’ by the consent of the governed. so yeh a lawyer would love everyone to join in the legal game…… id stay away from the legal side of it…. they want you in there… just do what you are doing on your own …. if you look at the bottom of your birth certificate you will see it is copyrighted ….. so do you want to claim to be someone you are not?
This is nonsense. The copyright on the birth certificate refers to the form. The state doesn’t want anyone else producing the form, so they copyright it. Personally, I don’t think that there is any reason to copyright stuff like that but that is, nevertheless, all the copyright refers to. The logic of what you and the other so-called ‘freemen’ claim with this childish argument ignores the fact that the blank form is copyrighted too! Does that mean that the state has created a corporate identity with no name at all? No, of course not.
It is pointless debating with people at this level but it is fun! Keep on coming if you like, you just make arses of yourselves.
surely it’s childish to let a government mother you and tell you what you can and cannot do?
Yes, it is. Why on earth would you let that happen?
i agree … why would anyone ?… yet most do i think … as im in Nott’m and dont know to much about the land you’re on down there… are they trying to evict you from public property?
The question of who owns the land around St Paul’s Cathedral is in dispute and will be an issue in the High Court proceedings.
Alan, do you use NHS?
Do you use public transport?
How about electricity supplied to your home?
Yes to any of these? (obviously this isn’t an exhaustive list)
Acts and statutes do apply to you, they benefit you, and you have already given your consent a long time in advance.
Thanks for your comment Carl. I wish I’d thought of this reply!
I know you can’t accept the blanket put over everyones eyes, but the fact is I have been arrested (for telling coppers the truth) 4 times now, and each time I have been released with name unknown on my release form. Also ontop of our names on our BC being copyrighted, the BC is printed on bonded paper……why? Stock share perhaps? You disregard and attack almost everything a ‘freeman’ says to you, but have you tried it, have you questioned police constables about it, or a judge about hes oath, or have you just stuck to what the statute books taught you?
I haven’t learnt much from statute books, except that they contain the version of the statute passed at the time. Every statute has to be view in the light of the common law judgments from our appellate courts. The paper used in printing is irrelevant. If you are arrested and taken to a police station and refuse to give your name but the police think that you are not worth pursuing they will release you but there has to be some paperwork.
yes there will be paperwork …. but it is voluntary to sign it, the only thing i would be signing for is my possessions back… the rest is them trying to get me to put my ‘name’ to something… which i am not obliged to do
my legal personality is obliged to abide by acts and statutes .. but not me the human
now where and when did i give my consent a long time in advance? and how?
If you don’t want to help Occupy London, don’t.
lol not worth pursuing? Twice I was arested for ‘refusing to give my name’ and yet released because name unknown. Another time I was driving my car that has no tax, they dint sieze my vehicle and I was released without any fines (my car has been de-registered). I hope my experiences make you think how and why I never get ‘punished’, I dont want to argue just find it strange some people stone dead refuse things without thinking just because it goes against what they believe in.
Peace brother, Hope all goes well with Occupy
I believe that you were not worth bothering about.
Hi Duncan, do you mind if I just, is it wise for people to do individual statements. Surley occuppy should present itself as a collective. For people to hand over their personal details has to be a mistake which will have consiquences now and in the future
Thanks in advance for your reply
Collective statements cannot be admitted as evidence in court. Only individuals can give evidence in court. In this post I am calling for witnesses to support Occupy London, which intends to rigorously defend itself in the High Court against the eviction proceedings brought by the City of London Corporation. In order to defend ourselves we must have witnesses and that means we need witness statements. I’m pleased to report that people are coming forward and giving witness statements. Plenty of people attend court every day to give evidence. All witnesses in all civil proceedings sign statements in the format I have described in this post. If you don’t want to reveal your name and any address connected with you, you cannot be a witness. I hope this clarifies the situation for you.
Hi again Duncan and thanks for getting back to me so quick. Your reply hasn’t comforted my concerns, sadly. Many people are in support of the ‘occupy movement’ because people are waking up to a currupt system and are standing together to show they’ve had enough but my fear & feeling is that people are handing over their personal details to the very system that they are standing up against, surley this is unwise and can have nagative consiquences in the future for each individual
Thanks again for taking the time to acknowledge me questions. Look forward to hearing back from you
Feel the fear and get over it! Time to stand up and be counted.