How Is Alcoholism Proven in Child Custody Cases?

Drug and alcohol abuse can affect a person’s suitability to parent a child. Impaired driving crashes can injure or kill a child. The parent may leave the child unsupervised while using or drinking. A parent’s actions while intoxicated could leave the child physically or mentally traumatized.

However, courts are reluctant to interfere with a parent’s rights. As a result, the parent alleging addiction to alcohol or drugs must have proof to support their accusations. Some examples of evidence a parent and their attorney might present include the following:

Parental Testimony

If you and the other parent were married, you can testify about what you saw and experienced during your marriage. If you lived separately, you can testify about your interactions. However, there are limits to your testimony.

First, you can only give relevant testimony. “Relevance” means your testimony must tend to prove or disprove a disputed fact. So you probably cannot testify that your co-parent stole towels from a hotel while drunk. However, you might be allowed to testify that they yelled at your child while drunk.

Second, you can only testify about your observations, not your opinions. Thus, your lawyer might ask you how many times your spouse has been to rehab and failed to get sober. But they cannot ask if you think they’ll ever stop drinking.

Third, you cannot give hearsay testimony. Hearsay is an out-of-court statement submitted to prove the truth of what was said. For example, you cannot testify that your child’s parent told you they got stopped for DUI while taking your child to soccer practice. Instead, your lawyer will ask them about it during cross-examination or get a copy of the arrest record.

Eyewitnesses

An eyewitness is someone who observed something and can testify about their observations. For example, the parent’s co-worker could testify about recent problems with their intoxication at work. Their observations can include any senses. They could testify that they smelled alcohol on their breath, heard them slur their words, or saw them fall down.

Witnesses also have limits on their testimony. They cannot give irrelevant, opinion-based, or hearsay testimony.

Police and Court Records

You can introduce official records of arrests, traffic tickets, and criminal convictions. Importantly, these records fall into an exception to the hearsay rule. Thus, you can use the parent’s criminal background of disorderly conduct and DUI convictions to prove their history of breaking the law while drunk.

However, you can only use relevant records. An arrest for assault, for example, might not be relevant unless it was committed against your child or committed while drunk. Generally speaking, prior bad acts unrelated to their parenting or alcoholism are not relevant because people act differently in different situations.

Medical Records

Medical records may provide relevant information about the parent’s failed efforts to treat their alcohol addiction. However, medical records are protected by doctor-patient privilege. The other parent must waive the privilege to keep those records confidential, or they must have willingly shared them with you previously.

Meeting Your Burden

You do not necessarily need to prove your spouse has “alcohol use disorder” according to its medical definition. However, you must have enough evidence to persuade a judge that your child’s best interests would not be served by residing or spending time with an alcoholic parent.

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Gucciardo Family Law has over 23 years of experience helping parents protect their children in custody cases. Get in touch to learn how we can help you.