FREE 6+ Witness Acknowledgment Forms in PDF | MS Word

Acknowledgment is important, not only for personal recognition but also for legal matters. An acknowledgment is often required when there is a specific execution to be made where witnesses need to participate to prove the facts and statements of an agreement. In addition to the legal forms that the involved parties will have to submit to the court, witnesses will have to completely fill out and sign the witness acknowledgment forms. All documents to be handed to the court and to the attorneys of the involved parties must be signed, reviewed, and approved by a notary public to ensure that the terms and statements in each document meet the legal necessities of the State and the court as well.

General Witness Acknowledgment Form

What Is a Witness Acknowledgment Form?

A witness acknowledgment form is a document which is intended to be signed by a presenting witness in the presence of a notary. This legal form is for documenting that the statements and the role of the witness during the case trial. Where the case is being held must be noted by the parties involved including the witness when deciding to prepare and complete the acknowledgment form since different States, countries, and towns will have varying laws which are regulated pertaining to the subject of the acknowledgment and the case itself. Moreover, the mayor of the town and a judge can also be the one who will review and execute the role of a notary public in the event that a notary public is not available.

Parts of a Witness Acknowledgment Form

Regardless of the case or the subject of the acknowledgment form, it must have the following parts for it to be effective and be considered as a legal document:

The venue: The venue is located at the top-left corner of the witness acknowledgment form which is for indicating the address and general information of the court. This part of the form will have the name of State where the court is addressed along with its the County name.

The body: This is the center or the focus of the witness acknowledgment form. The body will have the full date of when the acknowledgment form was provided, the name of the notary public who will be checking the form, and the witness’s name. In addition, a set of options regarding the notary public’s relationship to the witness or the signer of the document can also be incorporated into the acknowledgment form. Some of the options to include in the relationship identification portion of the form is a choice of whether or not the notary knows the witness or not, and if known, what is the degree of the two parties’ relationships with each other.

The signature block: The signature of both the notary public and the witness will be stated in this part of the witness acknowledgment form. The dates of when the form was signed should also be stated beside the signatures. Along with the signature of the notary would be his notary seal which will declare the legal bearing of the document.

Types of Witness Acknowledgment Forms

Basic Credible Witness Acknowledgment Form – This type of witness acknowledgment form is suitable to be used for any type of case since it centers only on the essentials of an acknowledgment form. The main objective of this form is to document that the witness who has signed his name and signature on the form is credible for the purpose of the case.

Basic Credible Witness Acknowledgment Form

Corroborating Witness Affidavit Acknowledgment Form – The reason why a witness is present in the court is to give his support to either both or one of the parties involved. The other term to be used for this purpose is to corroborate which is when a corroborating witness affidavit acknowledgment form must be used. This form is specifically to be used only for residency cases in relation to the dissolution of marriage. The form will be submitted along with the witness affidavit of the witness who is around the same address of the spouse who will be undergoing the divorce or has undergone the process of divorce yet will have to settle their residential issues.

Corroborating Witness Affidavit Acknowledgment Form

Credible Witness Affidavit Acknowledgment Form – The focus of this credible witness affidavit acknowledgment form is to document that the witnesses who have signed their names in the form do not have the required identification and that the notary public believed and proved the claims of the witnesses. The form also permits more than two witnesses in a single document compared to the other aforementioned forms. However, the need of having two witnesses will only be acknowledged if the first witness is not personally known by either the notary public and the document signer.

Credible Witness Affidavit Acknowledgment Form

Subscribing Witness Acknowledgment Form – In using a subscribing witness acknowledgment form, the signing witness is proving that he or she have seen the party signed the affiliated documents along with the presence of a notary public.

Subscribing Witness Acknowledgment Form

Steps to Make an Effective Witness Acknowledgment Form

Creating a legal form can be daunting to some people due to the differences between the rules and regulations in one State from another. However, a witness acknowledgment form is one of the easiest documents to create especially with the aid and guidance of an authorized individual such as an attorney or a notary public. To begin creating this legal form, the steps below should be followed:

Step 1: Open a word or text-processing software application. Among the available applications available in today’s generation, Microsoft Word is the most commonly used by the general population. This application is easy to navigate and use, which is why it is the popular choice of even the most known legal attorneys nowadays.

Step 2: Create an empty document sheet. When opening a new document sheet, the size of the paper must be changed as well as the measurements of the sheet’s margin and the font preferences to be used. The type of font to be used should imply a formal personality to the form such as the basic Arial and Times New Roman fonts.

Step 3: Begin encoding the different parts of the witness acknowledgment form. The parts include the venue, the body, the signatures, and an area for the notary seal of the hired notary public.

Step 4: Review the contents of the form. Proofreading and determining what else is lacking in the form should be done before it will be finalized.

Step 5: Save and print the final document. Ensure that the printer preferences are suitable for the measurements and the particulars of the whole witness acknowledgment form to avoid dealing with cropped portions and texts.

Tips for an Excellent Witness Acknowledgment Form

Since there are few sections present in a witness acknowledgment form, it is easy to draft and finalize it. However, with the following tips, a basic form will be made into a more effective and excellent tool for documenting statements and roles of the standing witnesses:

• Add an instruction sheet. The instruction sheet will help any user of the form to know how he can fill out the form and what other required documents must be submitted along with the completed form.

• Include an oath. A sworn statement for the witness and an oath for the notary public should also be included in the form. The oath is to swear during the signing of the acknowledgment.

• Photocopy the signed acknowledgment. Although it is not a requirement, having a duplicate of the signed legal forms and documents would be an option to choose to ensure that all parties are informed about each document.

Creditable Witness Acknowledgment Form

Simple Witness Acknowledgment Form

How to Make a Witness Acknowledgment Template

Making a template for a witness acknowledgment form is beneficial for people who are often using this type of document every day such as attorneys and document preparers. To make a template of a witness acknowledgment form, the maker should first determine what format he will be making the template into. Some of the formats to choose from include “.PDF” or portable document file format and “.DOC” or word document file format. Both formats provide varying advantages to the maker of the template.

The next step to take is to encode the parts of the acknowledgment form, however, blank spaces must be left out for specific information. The State and County address, the name of the signer, the name of the witness, and the signature block must be blank. After this, the template should be saved. It will then depend on the user to whether the template will be printed before it will be filled out physically or to encode information in the template first before it will be printed out.

It is important that the witness is someone who knows the people involved or the document signers, and that the notary public is aware of the details of the case or the need of why the acknowledgment form is required to ensure a smooth flowing procedure. Moreover, before officially signing the form, all parties, and the notary must have a discussion regarding the subject to clear out terms, conditions, and concerns.