If a complaint is amended, what is required to address defects?

• A. No oath is required.
• B. A new complaint must be filed.
• C. The affiant can re-swear to the amended complaint.
• D. The judge must approve the amendment.

Answer: (C)

When a sworn complaint is amended to fix defects, the key requirement is that the affiant re-swears to the amended version. The oath is tied to the statements as they currently appear, and if the allegations change through amendment, a fresh oath is necessary to affirm the updated facts under penalty of perjury. This preserves the reliability of the sworn filing and keeps the record properly authenticated for the court.

A new oath isn't optional; it must occur, and the amendment does not require filing an entirely new complaint in most cases since the amendment supersedes the old pleading. The judge’s explicit approval isn’t the universal trigger for an amend-and-swear process—the procedural step most often relied upon is the affiant re-swearing to the amended complaint to address defects.