The truth escapes many litigants and witnesses in family court. They lie to the court, the other litigant, evaluators, law guardians, GALs, and sometimes, their own attorneys. They get their children to lie. They get their friends to lie. They lie on Case Information Statements (i.e., either embellishing monthly expenses in the hopes of receiving a more substantial alimony award or minimizing the marital lifestyle and, thus, their support obligation); lie (by omission) about the universe of their assets to minimize the marital estate; they lie about employment; they lie about income (hiding cash); they lie in response to interrogatories and other discovery; they lie on mortgage applications; they lie on credit card applications; they lie about domestic violence; and they lie about involvement in their children’s lives. In summary, if you name the subject, we have seen a family court litigant lie about it.

The lies are generally occasioned by any combination of: financial motivation, desire to achieve an upperhand in custody litigation, or personality disorder(s) and other mental health issues. Unfortunately, many litigants get away with it because the harsh reality of family court is that most litigants never see (or get) their “day in court.” In turn, lying litigants have no fear because they rarely face repercussions. For those litigants who get their crack at “justice” in family court, the evidence rules, particularly N.J.R.E. 608 (as applied to civil/family matters), limits the extent to which they can “attack” the other litigant’s character for untruthfulness—but it does not have to be that way as we will explain.