Guide
Affidavit evidence is the deponent’s account. Several Australian courts restrict generative tools from writing that account. Start with the court’s note, not the draft.
In the NSW Supreme Court, SC Gen 23 bars using generative AI to generate the content of an affidavit, a witness statement or a character reference. The Federal Circuit and Family Court practice direction treats a protected address, medical information and information about a child as a separate problem. Federal Court GPN-AI is a different document again. Open the note for the file you have.
SC Gen 23’s definition of generative AI does not include a tool that only corrects spelling or grammar, transcribes, or formats, and does not generate substantive content. A rewrite is not in that exclusion. Do not paste the proof into a general chatbot to tidy the English. Other courts draw the line in their own words. The Uniform Law regulators’ statement does not outrank the court.
The affidavit is what the deponent says, in the first person, from their own knowledge or from identified sources. A model’s smoother sentence is not their evidence. Queensland Guidance Statement No. 37 and the Law Society of New South Wales guide both keep the practitioner responsible for the document they settle.
In the NSW Supreme Court, SC Gen 23 requires the affidavit to say that generative AI was not used to generate its content, including by rephrasing the deponent’s evidence. That is a statement that it was not used. It is not a description of how a tool was used. Leave to use generative AI for an annexure prepared for the evidence is exceptional and has to be sought. Other courts use different words. Do not copy a disclosure from another court.
The solicitor who prepares the affidavit reads every paragraph against the proofing notes and the exhibits. A tool does not take the oath. If the deponent cannot adopt a sentence as their own, it comes out.
Record the checks: Commercial litigation tasks · Open the court note for the forum
Commercial litigation tasks · NSW SC Gen 23 · FCFCOA AI practice direction · Witness statements · All guides
Often no, for the content. In the NSW Supreme Court, SC Gen 23 bars generative AI from generating affidavit content, and the affidavit must say that generative AI was not used to generate that content. Check the court you are actually in before any drafting.
No tool on this site is a substitute for the deponent’s account. Formatting and spell-check, where the court’s note allows them, are a different task from writing the evidence.
No. Proceedings in the Federal Circuit and Family Court follow that Court’s practice direction. Read it before any upload of material about a child or a protected address.
