False Child Abuse Claims in Custody Battles: Legal Strategies and Recourse
What if your ex uses false allegations of child abuse to get a protective order against you and to get custody? What is the punishment for them in family law court? I’m Tulsa attorney James Worth and that’s the question that we have. And when you’re in this scenario which we see a lot of these circumstances where we have frivolous allegations, that are being made to gain an advantage, particularly you see protective orders used to gain an advantage in getting custody, but also just allegations for emergency custody and in general custody cases, part of a paternity case or a divorce case.
So what happens to the other parent? Well first off, you’ve got to prove that those allegations are false. And I shouldn’t say it that way because ultimately if someone is making an allegation against you, the burden is on them. However, practically speaking, if the testimony is believed, then the burden does shift and you do need to show that that was not the case. But before there can be punishment for the other parent for making false allegations, you have to demonstrate that those allegations are false.
Legal Recourse and Strategies
So first off, in protective order court, the statute is pretty clear. If you can demonstrate that a petition was frivolous, then you’ve got grounds to get your attorney’s fees awarded to you, collect attorney’s fees from the other side. So that’s one thing. And certainly, if you can show that they do not have grounds for the protective order, the protective order should be dismissed. And if you can show that the parent is lying and is perhaps alienating the child against you, that’s good reason for the court to grant you custody.
The first things you want to look at is if there’s a protective order against you, you want to win on the protective order. If there’s a custody case where they’re making allegations against you, you want to win on that first. You want to make sure that you have your evidence together and that you can demonstrate that you are a fit parent.
Seek Legal Guidance for Best Results
From that point, then you want to look at seeing where you can go after that. Usually that means going after attorney’s fees, prevailing party attorney’s fees. If you have enough evidence to show that they lied under oath, then you could make a police report and go to the district attorney and see if you can get perjury charges filed against them. Or you could request the judge to make a finding that they lied under oath and request that the judge make a referral for a filing of perjury.
Take Action Today with a Low-Cost Initial Strategy Session
However, it’s very rare that judges would do that. It’s extremely rare. Let me start off. It’s extremely common where you see that parties and witnesses lie under oath to varying degrees in courts. It is extremely uncommon that charges for perjury are actually filed. There’s a lot of gray area there and a lot of times the court may believe one side over the other, but may not have the conviction to believe that the other party made it up. Some times parties believe things that are not true and they’re not necessarily intentionally lying about it. It can be a difficult process, but if you’re in this scenario, you wanna focus first and foremost on winning your case, getting the protective order kicked out and getting custody of your kids.
Only secondary and only then do you wanna focus on what punitive measures there may be for the other side. If you wanna go punitive at the very beginning, that may undermine the main part of your case, which is getting the protective order out and getting custody of your kids. But if you’re dealing with this circumstance, you’re gonna wanna talk to an Tulsa child custody attorney privately and confidentially. It’s very important to get legal advice early on to help establish that case to get the best possible result. Speak with an protective order defense attorney in Tulsa at my office. You can go online to MakeLawEasy.com or call 918-879-1681 for a low-cost initial strategy session.
