A dictionary does not state that claiming to have been falsely accused is the number one defense.  However, it is.  Defense attorneys will often claim that the client is falsely accused. Activists for prisoners will claim that the prisoners are innocent and falsely accused, those against the death penalty will claim the same.  Likewise a parent accused of child abuse will also claim to have been falsely accused. 

It is a great defense but that defense is in most cases  actually a false accusation because a person who committed an act knows that he or she is guilty regardless of if their case is dismissed by a court.  In these cases, the defendant is  falsely accusing the victim and or the victim's advocate (protective parent).

To make a false accusation/allegation is against the law in most localities, and it should be. A false allegation is at the very least a cruel and annoying thing to do to another.  It hurts not only the accused but all victims of the types of crime for which the false accusation was made. 

We live in a land of law and order.  Where one is also considered innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.  Courts tend to take the defense's own allegation as fact and the court sanctions the protective parent.  This is in a sense convicting the protective parent without a trial. As advocates for abused children, we feel it is wrong to allow the defense to make claims of false accusations/allegations against a plantiff or protective parent without the plaintiff or protective parent having his or her day in court. 

However, too often in courts across America protective parents are being vilified for having followed the law and having reported the abuse their child reported to them.  These parents in good faith reported what they were told and or suspected.  They complied with all the legal services and did everything they were told including in most cases allowed themselves to be investigated and were never allowed to any defense as they were never arrested for any crimes and yet, they suffer very severe consequences as a result of abusive parents false defense., the loss of their child to an abuser.

It is not uncommon for a judge to yell at a protective parent and it is not uncommon for a judge to state that the judge is not going to hear what the protective parents can say.  Judges are known to disregard the plaintiff's claim and to dismiss cases of child abuse simply because the defense claims to be falsely accused.  Judges have been known to refuse to hear witnesses and to allow evidence from the plaintiff and or protective parent.  In most cases that go to court, it is the state's own child protection agency bringing the case of what they consider founded child abuse.  CPS is in many cases the plaintiff but  the protective parent  is sanctioned and often losing all or part of the custody.  It is not a custody issue or a case of he said-she said but a case of the state versus one they founded to be a child abuser.