(A real case study from the ACT Magistrates Court, anonymised.) There is an uncomfortable reality in family-violence litigation: Lawyers routinely say things that are false, exaggerated, or unsupported — and courts almost never stop them. If you’re shocked by that statement, you haven’t sat through enough hearings. If you’ve been a respondent, you already know it in your bones. This isn’t a rant against lawyers as people. It’s an observation about how the system structurally