Liar’s Court by Bill Swadely
I’ve had the opportunity, albeit not by choice, to spend a few days at family court over the past six months. Family court, I was told by one lawyer who has spent the last 25 years in that area of his profession, is also known as “Liar’s Court.” The reason It’s called this is very simple: Almost everyone lies. They lie for various reasons. For personal gain, mostly, and sometimes out of a genuine concern for the welfare of the children involved.
In a perfect world, the mission of family court is to ensure that any agreement between the parents is in the best interest of the children. This, of course, would be a difficult task were everyone being forthright and honest, but when most everyone is playing fast and loose with the truth, it becomes a near impossibility.
What I witnessed most commonly was the old “he said/she said” routine. In most cases, this was all there was. Neither party had any evidence to present, so they made false claims about each other, which left the judge to decide who was lying least (or maybe who was lying better?) This was usually how it went. There were instances where one party or the other did have evidence that had been filed with the court. In those rare instances, the judge still proceeded as if it were a case of “he said, she said” and largely ignored any evidence in favor of hearing arguments…..read the rest of this article in the above link.
