Legal Question in Family Law in Ohio

My Ex-wife and her brother submitted false and contradicting statement in my divorce case, my wife submitted 2 statements that contradict each other and with the statement submitted by her brother, even the court of appeal has identified those false statement and granted me divorce. this is not for revenge, i just wanted a peaceful life away from her. i moved away from Ohio after i filed for divorce. its been 8 months since i got my divorce approved,

1.can i file a perjury case against both of them?

2.whom do i need to contact in Hamilton county Cincinnati, Attorney General or Hamilton County Prosecuting Attorney?

3.If so how do i approach them?

4. can i file this case in my resident state.

please help me experts.


Asked on 3/03/14, 1:59 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Eric Willison Eric Eastman Willison

In Ohio, private persons cannot file criminal charges against others. Only the state of Ohio (though the prosecutors it or the local counties employ) can file criminal charges. You can certainly encourage them to file those charges, but in criminal law, even the "victim" of a murder is not the murdered person. The "victim" is the State of Ohio.

You could try to file a civil case against these people, but it would be difficult to succeed in such a case since there is rule that statements made in court proceedings are generally not actionable as defamation.

If you could get a prosecutor interested in the charges, it would have to be the prosecutor from the county the court was in when the false statements were made. You would not be able to get a prosecutor in a different state to charge someone for making false statements in an Ohio Court.

Most prosecutors will pass on such charges though. They will explain to you that the false statements were made in front of a judge, and if that judge wanted to hit the party making such charges with contempt, then he or she could have, but did not.

The sad truth of the matter is that courts hear perjury every day. The penalty for perjury is generally not being believed and losing your case. But perjury is rarely charged unless the prosecutor really wants to convict someone and can think of no other charges to bring.

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Answered on 3/08/14, 11:26 am


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