Drafting an affidavit for the Family Court can sometimes be tough — especially when emotions are involved. Whether your case relates to parenting or property, it’s important that your affidavit is clear, respectful, and focused on the facts and not inflammatory.
ChatGPT can help you review your draft by highlighting vague or emotional language, improving structure and tone, and flagging content that may not be relevant or appropriate. But use it with care.
ChatGPT is not a lawyer. It can sometimes cite laws or case law that don’t exist, or point to irrelevant legal principles. Affidavits should focus on facts — not legal arguments. This guide offers helpful prompts to improve your affidavit, but remember: you are legally responsible for what you write.
When reviewing an affidavit in the Family Court — especially in parenting, property, or relationship matters — using carefully crafted prompts in ChatGPT can help you:
- Improve clarity, structure, and tone
- Strengthen your legal reasoning
- Ensure compliance with Family Court rules
- Identify gaps, inconsistencies, or weak points
- Flag vague, unsupported, or overly long content
- Rewrite emotional or inflammatory statements
- Make the affidavit child-focused and not parent-centric
- Adjust tone to be respectful, neutral, or semi-informal where appropriate
- Highlight opinionated or biased language and suggest more factual alternatives
Prompts You Can Use to Review Your Affidavit
1. General Review and Feedback
- “Can you review this affidavit for tone, clarity, structure, and objectivity?”
- “Does this affidavit read as credible and persuasive to the Family Court?”
- “Highlight any repetitive, unclear, or unnecessary content.”
- “Identify sections that are overly long or could be summarised or tightened.”
2. Legal Strength and Relevance
- “Which paragraphs are irrelevant to the legal issues before the Court?”
- “Does this affidavit directly support the legal test under the [Property (Relationships) Act / Care of Children Act]?”
- “Which parts of this affidavit could be challenged due to lack of specificity or evidence?”
- “Suggest improvements to make this affidavit more fact-based and focused on the legal matters.”
3. Tone, Objectivity, and Neutrality
- “Highlight any emotionally charged or opinionated language in this affidavit.”
- “Which statements are likely to be seen as inflammatory or biased by the Court?”
- “Rewrite this paragraph in a more neutral, non-accusatory tone.”
- “Make this section sound respectful, objective, and focused on the facts.”
4. Specific Drafting and Editing
“Rewrite this paragraph to clearly explain my parenting role in plain, non-defensive language.”
“Help me summarise this section while keeping the key points.”
“Rephrase this sentence to be less of an opinion and more of a verifiable fact.”
“Break this into short, numbered paragraphs for easier court readability.”
5. Format and Compliance
“Does this affidavit follow Family Court format: numbered paragraphs, clear topics, and first-person voice?”
“Add headings and numbers to organise this affidavit.”
“Condense this into a shorter version that is still persuasive and compliant.”
6. Risk, Credibility, and Strategy
“Are there any claims here that could damage my credibility or be seen as exaggerated?”
“Highlight anything that could be interpreted as speculation or personal bias.”
“Suggest edits to strengthen my position while maintaining a neutral and child-focused tone.”
7. Identifying Opinion vs Fact
“Highlight all statements that are opinion-based rather than fact-based.”
“Which paragraphs contain emotional or subjective language?”
“Suggest a fact-based alternative to the opinionated statements in this affidavit.”
8. Child-Focused Rewriting
“Rewrite this paragraph to focus on the child’s needs and best interests, not adult conflict.”
“Does this affidavit reflect the principles under section 4 of the Care of Children Act?”
“Remove any blame and shift the focus to how parenting arrangements support the child.”
9. Property-Focused Rewriting
“Make this financial section less emotional and more focused on contributions and fairness.”
“Reword this to clearly set out my non-financial contributions in a factual tone.”
“Does this explain my entitlement under the Property (Relationships) Act clearly?”
Combined Super-Prompt:
“Please review this affidavit and:
(a) highlight any vague, opinionated, or emotionally charged statements;
(b) suggest edits to make them factual, neutral, and respectful;
(c) flag anything irrelevant to the legal issues; and
(d) restructure where necessary for clarity, flow, and Family Court compliance.”
Important Disclaimer
- This content was generated with the assistance of ChatGPT, an AI developed by OpenAI. It is not legal advice.
- Affidavits are sworn legal documents. You are legally responsible for everything you include. You must:
- Only include facts that you know to be true
- Avoid making statements based on opinion, speculation, or assumption
- Understand that it is a unlawful to provide false or misleading information in an affidavit
- Recognise that ChatGPT may omit, simplify, or rephrase information in ways that may not fully reflect your intent or the legal requirements
- Always proofread carefully and cross-check with original source material
- Consider getting your affidavit reviewed by a lawyer or legal advisor, if required.
- Tools like ChatGPT can assist with drafting and editing, but you remain responsible for ensuring your affidavit is truthful, relevant, and admissible in court.
