St. Paul family law attorney Allison Maxim explains what role alcoholism and chemical dependency play in your child’s custody and support.
Transcription
If you have a spouse who uses alcohol or is chemically dependent, you’re going to have to figure out whether there’s a safety issue for the children. And, the question that needs to be asked is, does the other parent have the ability to abstain from using alcohol or drugs while they have time with the children?
And, if the answer to that question is no, then there are different options. One option is that that parent can be monitored using an alcohol monitoring divide. Another option is that they could do hair follicle test or another type of drug test where they would be tested for whatever type of drug is suspected that they’re using.
And, often times courts will order this if the other parent does not agree to voluntarily do such a test.