When you’re in a contentious divorce, you may come across statements made by your spouse that either misconstrue the facts or that contain outright lies. While you might laugh these off as being ridiculous, a court might buy into them unless you demonstrate why those statements are untrustworthy. This can threaten the outcome of everything from property division to child custody, thus emphasizing the importance of properly handling falsehoods that are bought up in your divorce proceedings.
How should you respond to your spouse’s lies?
Although dealing with false statements perpetrated by your spouse can be stressful, there are steps you can take to get a handle on the situation. These include:
- Presenting reliable testimony from other witnesses that is contrary what your spouse is saying.
- Submitting to the court your spouse’s other statements that contradict what they’re saying now.
- Deposing your spouse so that you can lock them into false statements, gain a better sense of what your they’ll argue in court and better prepare for trial.
- Retaining and gathering all written communications that you’ve had with your spouse as evidence at a hearing.
- Gathering all financial records that paint a clear and convincing picture of the issue your spouse is lying about.
- Utilizing expert witnesses, if necessary, to provide an opinion on important and highly contested matters.
Again, it’s important to realize that the burden is on you to demonstrate that your spouse has lied or otherwise misconstrued the facts in an attempt to sway the court. Only then can you rest assured that you’ll achieve a fair outcome from your marriage dissolution proceedings, even if that means implementing these strategies during alternative dispute resolution methodologies like mediation.