Recently I have realized that in divorce matters, the parties will in an attempt to discredit the other party, make various serious and scandalous allegations against one another, which allegations relates to amongst others serious criminal offences.

In some instances these allegations are made in an attempt by the one party to ensure the primary care and residence is awarded to them instead of the other party and further in an attempt to spite one another.

It is a given fact that South Africa is one of the countries with the highest number of domestic violence cases in the world and as such and due to the statistics, some parties involved in divorce matters, attempt to misuse laying a criminal complaint or obtaining a domestic violence interdict against the other party to obtain a false advantage against the other in the divorce proceedings.

I want to take this opportunity to caution the parties attempting to maliciously and wrongfully institute proceedings against their spouses by providing the following information.

Should a party institute malicious proceedings against his or her spouse, it may lead to a civil suit being issued against such a party, which could result in a substantial monetary judgement against such a party.

In order to succeed with such a suit, the aggrieved party should amongst others, prove that the defendant acted without reasonable and probable cause  and with malice to injure the plaintiff.

Save for the possibility of a civil suit, I have had instances were the parties were so content to destroy one another with these allegations that the family advocates recommended that the minor children be removed from the care of both parents and place in the custody of a third party.  

I do not condone any form of domestic violence of any nature, but every matter and allegation must be evaluated to prevent the malicious and wrongful prosecution of one party only as an advantage in divorce proceedings.