Heartbreak

How Narcissists Use The Legal Courts To Continue Their Abuse

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How Narcissists Use The Courts To Continue Their Abuse

As if the abusive marriage, relationship or business partnership wasn’t bad enough, the narcissist has to escalate the matter by threatening legal action. The legal system becomes an unknowing and unwilling extension of the narcissistic arm reaching out to cause as much damage as possible.

Their "take no prisoners" attitude stops at nothing to seek revenge for causing pain over some perceived embarrassment. Here are 8 ways a narcissist uses the legal system to bully their opponent.

1. Filing frivolous lawsuits


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Filing senseless lawsuits that have little merit to the point of forcing the opposing party to hire an attorney and incur unnecessary expenses. Many times these lawsuits are dropped, but not until after the opposing party takes the narcissist’s threats more seriously and perhaps has even succumbed to a demand.

2. Falsely projecting their issues onto you

Narcissists will often beat their opponent to court by falsely projecting their issues onto the opponent. This false accusation forces the opponent to be on the defensive and causes the court system to frown when the opponent makes a similar charge against the narcissist.

3. Inciting you to act irrationally


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Narcissists will incite and encourage their victims to act irrationally and then call the police on them. While technically this is not entrapment because it isn’t a law enforcement officer doing the act, the victim will nonetheless feel trapped. This event is then later used as a threat in another lawsuit or civil action.

4. Gaming the system

This is using the laws designed to protect a person as a point of manipulation against them. For instance, not allowing a child to see or speak to the other parent on “their time” because that would give the other parent more time than them. Child custody laws are there for the best interest of the child and if the child misses the other parent, they should be allowed to speak with them.

5. Filing senseless motions/hearings


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In order to delay the process, the narcissist will file senseless motions, excessive hearing, and multiple postponements. This is again done to drain the financial resources of the opponent and create an atmosphere of the never-ending lawsuit. For a narcissist, all attention is good, so dragging things out longer only benefits their ego.

6. Committing perjury

Narcissists will lie about matters that are not material and are inconsequential to the case just to anger their opponent. This is technically not perjury unless the lie is relevant to the outcome. This slight lie in the face of other statements further taints their whole testimony for the opponent and is intended by the narcissist to frustrate the process.

7. Using loopholes


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Narcissists love to find loopholes in the law and use it their favor. However, if their opponent were to utilize a loophole against them, the attacks would be ruthless. For the narcissist, this is a one-way street where only they can dodge an issue.

8. Tampering with the jury

Bribing or intimidating members of a jury to make a decision a certain way. While this is usually the stuff movies are made of, it still does happen in the court room. Narcissists frequently believe they are above the law and will not get caught.

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Christine Hammond is the award-winning author of The Exhausted Woman’s Handbook available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and iBooks.

This article was originally published at Psych Central. Reprinted with permission from the author.