Can a minor child’s testimony (he is 17) be used or an affidavit to affirm certain things happened or occurred? My spouse is making claims in order to hopefully increase her alimony and property settlement. Although I will not disagree that we did not have extremely contentions arguments, it was on both sides. I travel a lot because of my job, so she is accusing me of having an affair (because her friends told her so - lots of armchair quarterbacking going on) while on the road. But she has said things like: “I will have my brother beat you up”, “I will have my cousins beat you when they see you”, “I will kill you”, and threatened to call the police and tell them I threatened her so she can have a restraining order place on me. You’ve heard it all before I am sure. All because I will not quit my job and stop travel. But she has run up the debt so high I cannot quit. She was hooked on prescription meds twice and is currently on Suboxone. She has created high debt by running up the CCs (and said it was for the children?) - twice. Her own account and the joint have had NSF multiple times within this year alone. So what are my options if this goes to court? She is telling me if I don’t give in to what she wants, I am toast. I have an SA completed, but it is all in her favor. A little guidance would be nice right now.
Whether a child’s testimony is relevant depends on the facts at issue and the reason for the testimony.
The only reason would be to corroborate my story and I would only ask for a yes or a no if something specific was said or happened. I guess I am (was) too naive and did not document. Of course I didn’t expect it to go this far either so that I would have to do this. I wasn’t looking for things to use to cause injury or personal destruction to someone I cared about.
Whether a child can testify is a question of whether the court finds him or her to be competent.