Perjury In Divorce
Why it is difficult to obtain a perjury conviction in a false restraining order or in the case of false accusations made against you by your partner during a divorce? The reason is a legal provision known as the Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP). Wikipedia defines SLAPP as: a lawsuit or a threat of lawsuit that is intended to intimidate and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense until they abandon their criticism or opposition. The intent of the individual filing the SLAPP isn't necessarily to win the lawsuit. The plaintiff's goals are accomplished if the defendant succumbs to fear, intimidation, mounting legal costs or simple exhaustion and abandons the criticism. Individuals might shy away from taking part in the debate if a SLAPP is invovled.
The California legislature originally created SLAPP to solve a problem arising between environmentalists and logging companies. The environmentalists wanted to file suit against the logging companies, but the logging companies with their unlimited funding and resources would simply file lawsuit upon lawsuit on the environmentalists to try to wear them down. Therefore the legislature implemented the SLAPP provision to precent logging companies from utilizing lawsuits to silence their opponents.
That very same process is now being twisted and used by the divorce industry to prevent a defendant in a divorce case from filing a perjury charge against their ex, as long as the ex-spouse believes they have good reason for their claims. In short, if a person believes their reasons are true, they can make false statements during a divorce. Forget the other individual's due process rights are being violated and they aren't allowed to sue for perjury. The real downer is when the other individual violates SLAPP rights. Then the party that is innocent is required to pay for the other party's lawyer.
Basically, the problem with SLAPP is that it was originally conceived for a valuable and noble purpose, and now it has been perverted in order to suppress the rights of individuals during divorce proceedings.
This is just one of the reasons why restraining orders are so tough to beat; and more evidence about how insidious the Divorce Industry is. They are willfully allowing liars to file false charges in order to separate children from their own fathers.
