Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: False Abuse Allegatioins - Family Law

There is no such thing as criminal slander or defamation. (Note that slander is a particular variety of defamation and not a separate concept.) Such wrongs are normally addressed via civil lawsuits, but statements in court filings cannot form the basis of a civil defamation claim. You may have no remedy.

Moreover, true statements cannot be defamatory. If your ex and her lawyers said only that the daughter had said (or, in your words, "admitted") that she was abused, then their statements were true and could not be deemed defamatory. Even if the court papers said the accusations were true those statements were likely reasonable based upon the available evidence.

Even assuming that the daughter's original statement to the therapist was false, that still would not support a defamation claim against her mother. For one thing, her mother isn't the one who made the statement. Another problem is that, like statements made in court papers, statements made within the patient/therapist relationship are privileged and can't form the basis of such a suit.

Unless you can show that opposing counsel (or, perhaps, your ex) caused your daughter to make this accusation *and* knew at the time that it wasn't true, I don't think you can even get the court to impose sanctions.

Finally, the fact that your daughter changed her story and persuaded the therapist that the original version was untrue does not mean the judge will see things the same way. He/she may believe your daughter told the truth the first time and lied the second, as children (and adults) sometimes do when they think a lie will protect a loved one.

Sorry I can't be more encouraging.