42
votes
Accepted
Adapt the oath of truth to a reasonable version?
I think you should take "the whole truth" as simply short for "all the truth known to the witness, within the limits of the rules of evidence as applied by the judge." and take &...
- 113k
37
votes
Accepted
What's stopping someone from saying "I don't remember"?
You can't prove a negative, so they can't be convicted of perjury for lying about whether they remember;
Yes, they can. The government can convict the witness of perjury by proving that they did ...
- 29k
27
votes
Accepted
Is lying at all in a testimony considered perjury?
Take the US federal perjury statute as an example:
Whoever having taken an oath before a competent tribunal, officer, or person, in any case in which a law of the United States authorizes an oath to ...
- 29k
25
votes
Do judges really care about perjury?
Perjury is more than a lie
It is a knowing deceit undertaken with the express purpose of misleading the court on a material issue.
It isn’t misremembering, or contradicting oneself (or others), or ...
- 198k
24
votes
Accepted
Is lying in an application for a job at a private company, signed under penalty of perjury, prosecutable as perjury?
united-states
A "penalty of perjury" statement includes not just the warning about penalty of perjury, the person signing avows that the statements are true to the best of their knowledge. ...
- 210k
22
votes
Accepted
How often do people who make complaints that lead to acquittals face repercussions for making false complaints?
Prosecutions for falsely reporting rape are at least as common as perjury convictions (and usually don't count as perjury since the initial report is rarely made under oath), and even when charges are ...
- 195k
17
votes
Accepted
Why aren't all guilty people charged with perjury
Perjury is not 'not telling the truth'. It requires (in most jurisdictions) being proven to have deliberately lied under oath. As Xavier pointed out, you are not on oath when entering a plea (among ...
- 4,590
17
votes
Adapt the oath of truth to a reasonable version?
It's the whole truth of your experience
If I were to say "I saw John going into the store", in reality it may have been someone else, or they may have simply walked past the store (if you ...
- 367
16
votes
A witness (former gov't agent) knows top secret USA information. Can a court compel them to reveal the informaton?
The court should not compel the witness to disclose the information because there is a state secrets privilege which bars disclosure of governmental secrets in litigation.
An interlocutory appeal of ...
- 195k
13
votes
Why aren't all guilty people charged with perjury
Without going to specific jurisdictions perjury is "the offence of willfully telling an untruth or making a misrepresentation under oath". It therefore requires an untruth intentionally made with the ...
- 198k
13
votes
Adapt the oath of truth to a reasonable version?
Liability for perjury is governed by the language of the applicable perjury statute and the related case law, not by the language of the oath itself. The situation in the case of contempt of court is ...
- 195k
13
votes
Is lying in an application for a job at a private company, signed under penalty of perjury, prosecutable as perjury?
england-and-wales
It won't be perjury, but (with or without the "under penalty of perjury" phrase) it will be fraud.
12
votes
Accepted
Is it perjury to report not being a parent if one has an adopted child?
In new-jersey, the offence of perjury is defined at 2C:28-1 of the Code of Criminal Justice
A person is guilty of perjury, a crime of the third degree, if in any official proceeding he makes a false ...
- 43.8k
11
votes
Accepted
Can you charge someone with perjury during a traffic stop
As far as I know, every jurisdiction in America limits perjury to cases of lying under oath. Because it seems unlikely that the driver would be under oath at this point, you would probably lack ...
- 57.2k
11
votes
Is it perjury to report not being a parent if one has an adopted child?
No, it is not perjury. Analogously, "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is" (Clinton testimony). In Bronston v. United States, 409 U.S. 352 it was held that
There is no ...
- 210k
11
votes
How often do people who make complaints that lead to acquittals face repercussions for making false complaints?
This (like most of the other answers) is answer to an earlier version of the question.
I note you are asking about complaints that lead to acquittals. This requires the prosecution to bring a charge ...
- 43.8k
11
votes
Is lying in an application for a job at a private company, signed under penalty of perjury, prosecutable as perjury?
No
australia
Perjury is making a false statement in connection with a judicial proceeding.
You could be asked to sign a Statutory Declaration
Anyone can ask you to sign one of those although it will ...
- 198k
10
votes
What's stopping someone from saying "I don't remember"?
Anything you say in a court of law can be used against you in a court of law, unless the testimony is given under a grant of immunity. You would need to provide a transcript of the hypothetical ...
- 210k
9
votes
Can perjury apply to arbitration proceedings?
RCW 7.04A.170 states that "An arbitrator may issue a subpoena for the attendance of a witness and for the production of records and other evidence at any hearing and may administer oaths", ...
- 210k
9
votes
A witness (former gov't agent) knows top secret USA information. Can a court compel them to reveal the informaton?
The US Court Public Guide to Classified Information suggests that if you are a plaintiff you should file a notice when you file the (Federal) case to get the right people assigned.
18a U.S. Code § 6 ...
- 211
8
votes
Accepted
Is answering a question you are not sure about under oath perjury?
In the United States, the question that determines whether it's perjury is whether or not you believe what you said was true.
Whoever—
(1) having taken an oath..., willfully and contrary to such oath ...
- 57.2k
8
votes
Accepted
Does public denial of statements made under oath have legal consequences?
Will he break any laws by saying that (assuming the actual truth
cannot be found out)?
The statement made outside the courtroom is not itself perjury, since it is not made under oath. But that ...
- 195k
8
votes
What protection against a perjury prosecution does a hostile witness have?
Perjury prosecutions are hard to win, and therefore are not often brought. It is hard to think of a situation in which both "yes" and "no" would be subject to a perjury prosecution....
- 113k
8
votes
How often do people who make complaints that lead to acquittals face repercussions for making false complaints?
Within the US, criminal trials generally end in one of two ways - "Guilty" or "Not [Proven] Guilty". There is no "innocent" finding. As a result, many defendants are ...
- 668
7
votes
Accepted
How was Clinton's lie under oath about the Lewinsky affair relevant to the subsequent perjury charge?
Willfully telling an untruth or making a misrepresentation under oath is perjury; the reason you do so or the substance of it is irrelevant.
It is the act of perjury itself that is an offense and led ...
- 198k
7
votes
Is it perjury lying to a Med. Examiner. & Funeral Dir. about being next of kin?
Contempt
This is not contempt of court, which happens only in the physical presence of a judge, or in relation to a court order known by the person to be held in contempt to exist and related to that ...
- 195k
6
votes
Can you charge someone with perjury during a traffic stop
Short Answer
No. You can't charge someone with perjury at a traffic stop.
Long Answer
Perjury is a criminal offense, not a claim that can be brought by a private individual in a civil action. ...
- 195k
6
votes
Can perjury apply to arbitration proceedings?
What's the reality?
There is great diversity in how arbitration proceedings are conducted (as another answer notes, there are also lots of forms of ADR, especially mediation, that don't involve ...
- 195k
5
votes
Accepted
how to prove perjury?
Laws criminalizing perjury are not about being mistaken or less believable in your testimony. The crime is, very narrowly, stating something which you do not believe to be true, while under oath. If ...
- 210k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible