Your partner’s drug addiction can ruin your finances and endanger your children’s lives. Your partner’s addiction can also affect your divorce process in different ways. Take the following tips to protect yourself, your children, and the divorce process if your partner abuses drugs.

Request Emergency Orders

People abuse drugs at different levels. Drugs also affect people in different ways. For example, functional addicts may abuse drugs but still maintain a semblance of normalcy and continue with their everyday activities. However, some people become dysfunctional, abusive, and even violent when abusing drugs. In some cases, the abuse increases when you mention divorce.

You might need measures to protect yourself and your kids if your partner is abusive. A helpful measure is to request emergency orders from the court. For example, you may request emergency child custody and restraining orders.

Provide Proof of Addiction

The court will not just take your word for it when you claim that your spouse is a drug addict. After all, courts have dealt with false accusations of drug addiction or abuse. The onus is on you to prove your partner’s addiction and its effect on your life. Here are some ways to prove the addiction

Pictures

Take pictures of your spouse’s drugs and their paraphernalia. Save the pictures in their original state to avoid potential claims of editing or manipulation.

Receipts

Transaction records of legal drugs might not mention drugs. However, people also abuse legal drugs, and their transactions might show up in credit card records. For example, you may find evidence of marijuana or prescription drug purchases.

Eyewitness Testimony

Eyewitnesses can be neighbors, friends, and even drug sellers. A private investigator may help you locate witnesses if the neighbors and friends cannot testify.

Treatment Records

You can also use treatment records as proof if your partner tried to undergo or underwent addiction treatment. For example, you can use addiction records at rehabilitation centers.

Drug Tests

In some cases, the court may allow or require independent drug testing. The test may be necessary if our partner has denied their drug use and you don’t have alternative evidence.

Request Sole Custody

Request sole physical custody of your child if you believe that the child won’t be safe with the other parent. For example, you should request sole custody if the other parent might:

• Leave the child without food
• Not provide adequate shelter for the child
• Not provide healthcare to the child if they fall sick
• Abuse drugs in the child’s presence
• Physically abuse the child

You can use evidence of the parent’s past misbehavior to prove why they should not have physical custody of the child. For example, a recent history of domestic abuse can serve as evidence.

Request Supervised Visitation

Consider supervised visitation if the other parent has domestic violence or abuse history. Otherwise, the child might suffer for the few visitation hours they might have with their parent.

Supervised visitation requires a third party’s presence when a parent visits with their parent. The third party can be a worker or a family member. The visitation occur place at the child’s home or at a visitation center.

Prove Financial Effects

Drug addiction does not automatically affect asset or debt division. However, an addiction that has affected your marital resources can determine asset and asset distribution. Say your partner sold your marital assets to fund their drug habit. Provide evidence of the same to get compensation for the loss during asset distribution.

Hopefully, you will get a fair divorce settlement despite your partner’s drug addiction. The Law Offices of Lynda Latta, LLC, specializes in all areas of family law. Contact us for help in your divorce and benefit from our decades of experience.

If you are involved in a highly disputed custody case, there will be many people you may interact with during your court case. While you may be familiar with the roles of the attorneys, your child may also be assigned a Guardian ad litem. Understanding what a Guardian ad litem (GAL) is and their role in your case will help you be more at ease interacting with this person.

What Is A Guardian Ad Litem?

All parents, whether married or not, have child custody and visitation rights. However, unmarried parents have to go through different hoops to enforce these rights. The process is also different for unmarried mothers and fathers. Below are some things you should know about custody and visitation rights as an unmarried father.

A Mother Often Gets Parental Rights

In many cases, the mother often gets parental rights right after the baby is born. These parental rights usually include custody rights. This is especially true if the father is unknown or doesn’t want to be involved with the baby’s upbringing. In that case, the mother usually makes the decisions about the child’s living situation, choice of daycare, religious upbringing, and vacation times.

When you have a child, he or she becomes your top priority, even if you are in the process of ending a relationship. You want the best for your child even if you are not able to remain in a relationship with the other parent. Whether you are facing divorce or the breakup of a short relationship, you may be looking for options for resolving child custody issues.

Mediation provides you and the child’s other parent the opportunity to sit down and discuss the issues at hand. With the help of a mediator, you have an unbiased individual helping you address your respective problems. For many reasons, mediation is a fantastic option to consider.

Mediation Identifies Key Issues

When unmarried couples have a child, the law doesn’t automatically assume the child’s parentage. You have to establish paternity to ensure a legal relationship between the parent and the child. Establishing paternity bestows numerous benefits to both the parents and the child. Below are some of the areas these benefits cover.

Identity and Relationship

If you are the father, establishing paternity allows you to confirm your relationship with your child. The confirmation will help establish your child’s identity. Many children wish to know their legal parents, even if they already have other adults in their lives (such as stepparents).

Divorces are generally grouped into two main categories: simple and complex. But while some divorces are firmly in one camp or the other from the get-go, other cases start out simple but become complex during the process. What causes this to happen? Here are five common reasons yours may evolve over time. 

1. A Contentious Spouse

Your divorce may appear relatively cut-and-dried on paper, but your spouse can make things much more complicated in person. They may change their mind about things you thought were settled, for instance, bring up new issues, or argue minute details within the agreement. A spouse who digs in their heels may not be deterred by the time, energy, or monetary investment in a long, drawn-out trial.

Welcoming a new member into your family requires a lot of preparation. If you are a New Mexico resident thinking about adoption, an attorney could help you a great deal during this process. Below is what you should expect once you decide to adopt a child in New Mexico. 

Licensing

The State of New Mexico, under the Children, Youth and Families Department (hereafter referred to as the department), will conduct a home study to determine if your home or family can accommodate a new member. Typically, they identify your strengths as a prospective adoptive family. They also evaluate your ability and willingness to create a safe and conducive environment for the child.

The emotional stress caused by divorce prompts many to turn to friends and family for support. However, in today’s digital age, social media is a popular way for people to reach out to their support group. Unfortunately, social media can be harmful, and in many cases, the cause of divorce itself. Once you post something, there’s no going back.

While social media is a useful tool to connect to others, if you’re currently going through a divorce, it’s best you refrain from posting your woes on social media. Here’s an overview of what not to do, and why.

Anything You Say Can, and May, Be Used Against You

A strong parent-child relationship is necessary for the emotional, social, and physical development of a child. Unfortunately, this relationship often breaks down during a divorce. Below are some measures to help you maintain your relationship with your child during a divorce.

Minimize Conflict

Conflicts between parents affect the parent-child relationship. For example, the child might view one parent as the antagonist and the other as the victim. In that case, the child’s relationship with the perceived antagonist might suffer.

Minimize conflict during your divorce to avoid such effects. Here are some helpful tips:

The root cause of divorce for couples varies widely. From infidelity to financial distress, there are many reasons why couples choose to end their marriages. Another common problem for married couples is personality disorders.

Those with personality disorders, specifically Narcissistic Personality Disorder, can have a difficult time maintaining a marital relationship, though this is not the case for everyone. Some people with NPD can seek help with their personality disorders and have a happy marriage. Sadly, others cannot.

Read on to see some information on NPD and how it can impact your divorce if your spouse deals with this personality disorder.