Combating the Perjury Problem in Civil Litigation

Every experienced litigator knows that perjury in civil cases is common and too often goes unpunished. Prof. Alan Dershowitz once testified before the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee that “no felony is committed more frequently in this country than the genre of perjury and false statements.”¹ Unfortunately, he may be right. Our legal system depends on the veracity of sworn testimony.² Witnesses affirm or take an oath to tell the truth. If that oath or affirmation is to mean anything, there must be consequences for witnesses who violate it. When perjury goes unpunished, it undermines our legal system and public confidence in that system.

We acknowledge that our adversarial judicial system is designed to correct a certain amount of perjury. “[T]he function of trial is to sift the truth from a mass of contradictory evidence, and to do so the fact finding tribunal must hear both truthful and false witnesses.”³ Nevertheless, judges should not rely solely on their ability to assess self-interested testimony, giving it only the weight that it deserves, or on a jury’s ability to follow instructions regarding witness credibility.