How to prove alcoholism in custody cases is the question closely related to the question of whether is it possible for a parent consuming alcohol to maintain a strong safe relationship with their child.
In any child custody dispute, the center of the consideration is the child’s health and wellbeing.
How to prove alcoholism in custody cases-DVRO
If an alcoholic became physically and/or emotionally abusive to another parent and/or that child you should file domestic violence restraining order (DVRO). In order to do that you need to be sure sufficient evidence of the abuse and can show that your safety and children’s safety are jeopardized around the abuser.
However, be sure to know that a restraining order or protective order is a public record in California. It would negatively impact another parent in multiple ways. So, it is not a good idea to use domestic violence restraining order for the purpose to get full custody.
Most of the time, one of the parents requests sole custody on the ground that another parent has alcohol abuse. In cases where both parents claiming on each other alcohol abuse and they do not realize that they are at risk to lose custody at all. In order to make such as serious accusation as alcohol abuse, you need sufficient evidence.
How to prove alcoholism in custody cases – Evidence
If the parent has a long alcohol abuse history most likely you will be able to produce records proving a pattern of alcohol abuse. Such a pattern would likely indicate a risk of relapse and repeated abusive behavior. The parent who made allegations might be able to get medical records of excessive drinking, DUI records, court-appointed programs for alcohol treatments.
how to prove alcoholism in custody cases – Lab Detecting
In order to prove or disprove whether the parent has recently consumed alcohol, you can ask the court to order the EtG test.
When someone consumes even small amounts of alcohol, EtG is formed and can be detected as soon as 2 hours – 80 hours after using alcohol.
Alcohol can be detected by a blood test for up to 12 hours or more. There are some other tests that can be used to determine alcohol consumption such as aspartate aminotransferase (AST), gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) concentrations, ext.
PEth can be useful to detect longer-term exposure (within 2 weeks or longer) and the level of consumption.
How to prove alcoholism in custody cases – Witnesses
Using Witnesses is one of the good tools how to prove alcoholism in custody cases. A third party has witnessed the parent’s drinking patterns and had found such patterns to be risky and excessive. Keep in mind that whatever someone said outside the court is hearsay and may be admissible if the witness agrees to come to the court to testify under oath. You can also subpoena a witness, which means to get an order from the court saying that the witness has to come to court.
How to prove alcoholism in custody cases – to Protect from False Accusations
What had happened when one of the parents is trying to create a prima facia case for DVRO making false allegations in order to get some physical custody.
A parent can be tested to prove that he has not consumed alcohol over a specified period of time. There are numerous tests that could be used including the tests mentioned above. However, the most important point is to show the court that even if you did consume alcohol in a reasonable amount under certain circumstances in social events, it did not affect your ability to behave properly and keep a safe and healthy relationship with your children.
It might be a good idea for you to agree to submit to testing before and/or after parenting time. We have already mentioned some of the tests above. In addition, there is personal alcohol monitoring systems in alliance with new technologies which enable highly accurate, non-invasive monitoring in real-time with wireless connectivity. For example, Soberlink’s alcohol testing device could be used. A party who would like to prove their sobriety should voluntarily agree to monitor because it would create trust and help to prove their parenting capacity.
Unfortunately, in reality, cooperation might not be always possible, especially if the accused is in denying his alcohol misuse.
The court could appoint a counsel for the minor – an attorney who represent children in order to determine what impact/ if any a parent who consume alcohol made on child’s mental condition, If the counsel for a minor would determine that kids have significant memories with father/ mother drinking and fighting between each other than the judge would not make a decision favorable to the drinking parent in child custody determination.
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