Four ways to protect yourself from a lying spouse

In an ideal divorce, you and your spouse would effectively communicate, be honest with each other and work to find mutually beneficial resolution. Yet, the reality is that all too often divorces are riddled with conflict, and spouses struggle to be truthful. That’s why it’s critically important that you know how to protect your interest when navigating the marriage dissolution process. If you head into your divorce without a plan to push back against your spouse’s misconstruing of the facts or outright lying, then you could end up receiving the short end of the stick, thus leaving you in a difficult position post-divorce.

Fortunately, there are strategies that you can implement to protect yourself from a lying spouse. Let’s look at some of them here so that afterwards you’re hopefully more prepared to confront your spouse as needed in your marriage dissolution.

Tips for addressing lies in your divorce

Your initial instinct when hearing a falsehood during your divorce proceedings may be to attack your spouse as a liar. But that may not be the best way to handle the situation. You’re probably better off being more strategic, which can be accomplished by doing the following:

• Deposing your spouse: By taking your spouse’s sworn testimony before settlement negotiations and trial, you’ll gain an understanding of your spouse’s position. And by locking them into their statements, you can quickly identify any lies that are told. This gives you the opportunity to think through the best way to respond to them, which may be as simple as using that depositional testimony to attack their credibility at a contested hearing.
• Presenting contradictory witness testimony: The court will probably give your spouse’s testimony less weight if it has been contradicted by other credible witnesses. So, it might be helpful to identify a couple of key lies and focus on contesting them through other testimony.
• Relying on documentary evidence: Your spouse can say what they want, but if you have records that contradict them, they’re going to be in a hard place to convince a judge that their account of events is accurate. This is why it’s crucial that you engage in thorough discovery to identify and gather all documents that may be relevant to your case. This can include financial, medical and even educational records.
• Documenting everything: It can be hard to keep track of all the lies during your divorce. And if you can’t recall them with clarity, then you’ll be hard-pressed to convince the judge or your spouse of what’s actually been said. So, do your best to document all questionable statements made by your spouse as quickly after they’re made as possible. This will create a record of your interactions with them and give you something to turn to if you need to recall specific assertions that were made.

There may be other strategies you can implement to shield yourself from your spouse’s lies, such as keeping a professional demeanor and refraining from knee-jerk reactions. You just have to be proactive while exercising foresight as far as what best protects your future.

Are you ready to craft a strong divorce legal strategy?

If so, then now is the time to read up on the challenges that you may face and how you can fend them off. With thorough preparation and keen anticipation of your spouse’s arguments, you’ll be strongly positioned to make persuasive legal arguments aimed at protecting your interests. Hopefully then you can secure the outcome you want that sets you on the path to the future you envision for yourself.