CPLR No Longer Requires Affidavits from Foreign Witnesses

Effective January 1, 2015, CPLR 2106 is amended to provide:

(b) The statement of any person, when that person is physically located outside the geographic boundaries of the United States, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, subscribed and affirmed by that person to be true under the penalties of perjury, may be used in an action in lieu of and with the same force and effect as an affidavit. Such affirmation shall be in substantially the following form:

I affirm this ... day of ......, ...., under the penalties of perjury under the laws of New York, which may include a fine or imprisonment, that I am physically located outside the geographic boundaries of the United States, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, that the foregoing is true, and I understand that this document may be filed in an action or proceeding in a court of law.

(Emphasis added). This amendment will for the most part end collateral litigation over whether an affidavit signed outside the United States was properly executed and greatly simplify litigation involving foreign witnesses. However, the rules governing the execution of out-of-state US witnesses remain unchanged.

Remember to use the wording provided by the CPLR (quoted above) and not duplicate what you have used in the past for attorney affirmations.