The prevalence of perjury in family court---leveling false accusations of domestic violence and child abuse are essentially accepted, standard litigating strategies, frequently advised by attorneys, therapists, and other counselors---may be reduced by punishing it, but doing so is unlikely to eliminate it as long as false allegations continue to be an efficacious means toward certain [...]

  Enhancing Mechanisms to Handle perjury Agree with the recommendation subject to modification as described below. We agree that some mechanism is needed to address the issue of perjury in family law cases. We agree that legislation is the appropriate means to bring about the change. We agree that orders obtained using knowingly or fraudulently [...]

This is one of the most important areas to fix in Family Courts. This brief paragraph is woefully inadequate. Where there is material perjury on financial or custody-related issues, there must be serious consequences to the litigants AND the attorneys. The officers of the Court (lawyers) must be held accountable by the State Bar’s code [...]

Enhancing Mechanisms To Handle Perjury. Rules and Code provisions have been in place for years that empower the trial courts to handle this. We need enforcement of what we have. It is also my best information that trial judges have been and are being encouraged not to make orders and grant sanctions against attorneys and [...]

  We would like to see a rule that allows the family court to enforce perjury laws and to order fines for perjury that would go to family law services in the court, in addition to sanctions that compensate for the fees incurred to address the perjury. Deborah J. Marx (on behalf of the Alameda [...]

  Perjury is certainly a problem that family law litigants face. It is agreed that there should be a mechanism for curbing perjury and sanctioning litigants who perjure themselves. This recommendation suggests that litigants have the opportunity after a court order has been made to prove by clear and convincing evidence that the other side [...]

Perjury People lie in family law because perjury is not punished. One Marin County deputy DA recently said that in his 25 years on the job, he has never seen perjury (a felony) committed in family court proceedings prosecuted in criminal court. In addition to sanctions, it should be prosecuted as the crime it is. [...]

Disagree. This recommendation is sadly lacking. Perjury is a way of life in family court---not just by litigants but also by attorneys. The litigation privilege plus anti-pro-per attitudes have resulted in blatant lying by certain attorneys. And it takes a lot more effort to disprove lies than to make them. Fee awards should address these [...]

AAML-SoCal believes that perjury is rampant in family law cases and something needs to be done about it. AAML-SoCal believes that there are no adequate consequences imposed by the courts when perjury is committed and that this has resulted not only in lack of respect for the courts by litigants and lawyers but the virtually [...]

There is unanimous agreement among attorneys and litigants that the family courts do not punish perjury in any meaningful way. I am not going to mince words on this one: the California Superior Courts have abdicated responsibility on this issue.  Perjury is the accepted norm in family law, and as long as perjury is not [...]