Getting divorced under any circumstances can be stressful. After all, you have to find a way to untangle your life from that of your spouse, which can be difficult to do when you’ve spent years or even decades building your life together. Time with your children, financial stability, and a sense of fairness and closure are all on the line. Yet, achieving a fair and favorable outcome can be particularly hard if your spouse consistently lies about everything and misconstrues the facts.
If this is happening in your divorce, then you might feel defeated and believe that there’s no point fighting with your spouse since you’ll never win. But you can’t simply give into your spouse’s demands. Doing so could leave you in a dire financial predicament post-divorce, and it could limit the amount of time that you get to spend with your kids. So, instead of rushing your divorce to limit the amount of interaction you have to have with your spouse, find ways to effectively deal with your spouse’s lying so that you can secure an outcome that’s right for you.
How to deal with a lying spouse during divorce
We know that dealing with a lying spouse can be frustrating and even downright infuriating. But you have to do your best to maintain your cool while keeping your eyes on attaining your divorce goals. Here are some strategies that may prove effective for you:
- Gather contradictory evidence: If you know that your spouse is going to lie about everything, then you should be prepared to contradict them. The best way to do this is to find clear and reliable documentation of the issue in question, but you can also turn to witness testimony to draw your spouse’s account of events and circumstances into question. Just make sure your contradictory evidence is as clear and credible as possible.
- Keep a written journal: Your spouse is going to lie about what they’ve said to you and the interactions you’ve had with them. Instead of trying to recall these interactions from memory, document them in a journal so that you have something you can refer to when needed. This should help you better contextualize the interactions you’ve had with your spouse while providing ample detail to support your case.
- Conduct a deposition: When you depose someone, you take their sworn testimony outside of court and prior to your contested hearing. Therefore, you lock them into their statements and can later use their depositional testimony to attack their credibility. Deposing your spouse can thus eliminate surprises and, if they change their story, you have something you can use against them. It also allows you to highlight for the court their lack of reliability.
- Use experts: Your spouse might lie about everything from their relationship with your children to the existence and value of certain assets. Although you might have your own accounts and documentation that contradict your spouse, an unbiased third-party account will likely have more sway over the court. So, consider whether a child custody evaluation, assets valuation, or forensic accounting can be helpful in your divorce.
Don’t let your spouse take advantage of you in your divorce
There’s a lot on the line in your divorce. You don’t want to cave to your spouse’s demands and wind up in a difficult post-divorce position as a result. So, anticipate your spouse’s position and develop a legal strategy that seeks to effectively counter it. By doing so, you’ll hopefully set yourself up for the successful outcome you deserve.