SCILICET

To a layman, the S.S. in a legal document may inspire awe and wonder at its formality. Surely, such initials must mean that the document itself could spell the difference between life and death. I've even heard people refer to an affidavit as the person's "Sworn Statement", TO WIT; "He stated in his S.S. that...."

Well, that's all it means, really. The S.S. in a legal document stands for scilicet, Latin for... “TO WIT.”

Thus, the example above means the document has been executed in the Republic of the Philippines, to wit, or more particularly in, the City of Cebu.

It does nothing more than establish the location of the document’s execution and, well, make the document look legal. A failure to include that does not invalidate the document.

Nothing to it.