How are debts owed to family members dealt with in divorce proceedings?
The first question for the court to determine is whether the debts are legitimate, and this is a...
The Court only need to become involved in deciding the arrangements for children if parents cannot agree the arrangements between themselves. One parent might be concerned about the children spending unsupervised time with the other parent, as a result of the other parent’s heavy consumption of alcohol and therefore reaching an agreement regarding contact is not possible.
If you were involved in Court proceedings regarding child arrangements, you would have the opportunity to raise your concerns regarding the other parents drinking with Cafcass as part of the safeguarding process. If both Cafcass and the Court share your concerns, the Court can order for the other parent to undergo an alcohol test to check their level of consumption.
The testing can either be done via a hair strand test or blood test and can cover a variety of testing periods. The testing can also be broken down into segments to show the persons alcohol consumption each month within the testing period.
If the test results show that the other parent’s alcohol consumption is chronic and perhaps a safeguarding risk concerning the children; the Court will take this into account when considering what child arrangements would be in the children’s best interests going forwards.
The Court may give the other parent an opportunity to address the issues identified if this were the case.
Contact us
For further information, please contact Aimee Stokes, a Family Law Solicitor based in our Wolverhampton Office on 01902 328 355.
George Green have offices based in Wolverhampton and Cradley Heath and serve clients across the West Midlands and Black Country including Stourbridge, Wolverhampton, Halesowen, Birmingham and beyond. If you complete our online enquiry form, a member of our team will contact you for an initial discussion.