this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2023
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[–] GCanuck@lemmy.world 232 points 1 year ago (2 children)

“You’re in contempt of court. You have been fined $x and continued refusal to swear the oath will land you in prison until you do. Jackass.”

That’s what the judge does.

[–] Neato@kbin.social 29 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's really a process of letting the subpoenaed know that they either tell the truth, lie and face perjury charges, or refuse and face contempt or court charges. The latter can seemingly land you in jail in perpetuity. Because fuck you, I guess?

[–] FederatedSaint@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Does the "right to remain silent" still apply?

[–] Neato@kbin.social 24 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That's mostly for police. Once you're in court and ordered to testify, the person talking about germany is mostly correct. You can't be forced to self-incriminate nor testify against a spouse. Otherwise yes. Generally 99% of courts won't bother even asking the defendant to testify because self-incrimination is practically guaranteed. Usually only if the defense calls on them, which is often a bad idea.

[–] EmoDuck@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"Please state your name"

"I can't do that without incriminating myself"

[–] ArtisinalBS@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago

Mr. Stealsalot,
We meet again

[–] newIdentity@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I just talked about Germany because I didn't knew how it is in the US. Apparently it's exactly the same. Intresting comment

[–] lazyvar@programming.dev 1 points 1 year ago

Only if there’s a risk at incriminating yourself, and if it’s not immediately apparent how you’d run that risk (e.g. you’re a witness that doesn’t have a direct relation to the crime at hand) you’d have to motivate how it could be incriminating.

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[–] pinkdrunkenelephants@sopuli.xyz 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How is it legal for them to just throw you in jail forever just for pissing off a judge? Why even pretend we have rights if that's how the system is going to operate?

[–] kmkz_ninja@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Because other people have a right to a speedy trial as well, and if you're intentionally holding up the court's time they're going to punish you.

[–] RegularGoose@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It's illegal to lie to the court. Even if all oaths weren't utterly worthless, one made under duress is inherently invalid. This one serves literally no purpose other than to psychologically dominate a person.

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[–] TheBigMike@lemm.ee 74 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If this happens they'll do the "A person who swears to tell the truth and nothing but the truth says what" ordeal. If that doesn't work they will just let you leave

[–] Blastasaurus@lemm.ee 31 points 1 year ago (1 children)

JUDGES HATE THIS ONE TRICK!

[–] davi@hexbear.net 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I wonder how many times it takes for a judge to get tired of sending you too jail for contempt over and over again for refusing to say yes. Lol

[–] nik282000@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I am a sovereign citizen and do not recognize your authority!

  • Rusty Shackleford, probably
[–] VikingHippie@lemmy.wtf 2 points 1 year ago

Also: Subway Jared

[–] MonkderZweite@feddit.ch 1 points 1 year ago

Also Julian Assange.

[–] TheBat@lemmy.world 72 points 1 year ago (3 children)

"Anything you say can be used against you in court."

"Titties."

"..."

[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Opportunity is not compulsion

[–] GitProphet@lemmy.sdfeu.org 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

In the movies they always say "... can and will be used against you"

[–] VikingHippie@lemmy.wtf 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Well since we're being all precise and shit, it's "can and will be held against you", which happens to fit the joke much better 🤷

[–] VikingHippie@lemmy.wtf 1 points 1 year ago

One of my favourite Talking Heads albums

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The witness requests titties. Baliff, bring in "Big Mike"

[–] CurlyMoustache@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

His name was Robert Paulson

[–] Leviathan@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Held against you. It works much better with the proper wording.

[–] Colorcodedresistor@lemm.ee 36 points 1 year ago (1 children)

My client has plead Oopsie Daisy, Your Honor. Case Dismissed (drops mic)

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[–] squaresinger@feddit.de 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Judge: Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

Me: Fuck. Here, I swore.

[–] agressivelyPassive@feddit.de 17 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Ok, serious question: what is the course here? Can you be forced to swear?

[–] malle_yeno@pawb.social 24 points 1 year ago

Generally speaking, you will be asked to swear or affirm that you are going to tell the truth, and that you understand the consequences of not telling the truth. Whether you do a whole ceremony about it or not, it doesn't really matter -- but the court will want to know that you are competent to testify truthfully and that you know that you're not allowed to testify to things you know aren't true.

If you're asking "can you be forced to testify?", the answer is "Yes but it depends." If you're competent to testify and the officers of the court deem your testimony important, they can subpoena your testimony. If you have a reason to contest it, you can -- but "I don't want to" isn't good enough.

[–] Sharpiemarker@feddit.de 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You don't get to testify, I assume.

[–] newIdentity@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago (6 children)

But what if you don't want to testify in the first place?

In Germany you're forced to testify anyways.

[–] Sharpiemarker@feddit.de 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm not sure as I'm not a legal expert. I can say that if they know that you're not going to be honest, there's no reason for your testimony.

[–] newIdentity@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

They can put charges on you for lying in court as a witness. You can get 6 months to 15 years in prison if you lie under outh.

And if you don't want to say anything as a witness, you also get detention for up to 6 months. Oh. And they have to pay for it.

Thats what I figured out after a quick Google search at least

In most cases they lie and say: "I really would want to testify, but I can't really remember anymore." and it's pretty hard to prove that their memory isn't shit.

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[–] nx2@feddit.de 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] agressivelyPassive@feddit.de 3 points 1 year ago

Not really. This is about ability, not willingness.

[–] argv_minus_one@beehaw.org 16 points 1 year ago

In America, the disobedient prole gets tossed in the slammer and forced to do hard labor.

[–] MedicPigBabySaver@lemm.ee 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Trump: "Yes."

Normal brain World: "Liar!"

[–] Krackalot@discuss.tchncs.de 12 points 1 year ago

Trump: "No"

GOP brain world: "In my experience, no means yes..."

[–] sangriaferret@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)
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[–] Franzia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I once crossed off something I didn't like on a contract and the boss scolded me and put a fresh new one in front of me while printing out yet another one.

[–] zkikiz@lemmy.ml 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

All contracts are negotiable, you did nothing wrong other than not having a conversation before wasting paper, the main issue is that for most people the negotiation is "if you want to work here you have to agree to all this."

But yeah reasonable accommodation and mutual understandings, etc, should be written down and signed. I challenged the non-disclosure agreement at my job once because it literally said I couldn't talk about my work with ANYONE, and a plain reading of it would mean I'd be unable to even talk to my boss about what I was supposed to be doing. It was poorly written and probably unenforceable. My boss didn't like that so I signed it anyway and then focused on finding work elsewhere (he was a dick and his company got raided by the FBI a few years later)

[–] Franzia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 year ago

Thank you, this is valuable insight.

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