Judges Do Consider This

Video Transcribed: My name is Brian Jackson, and I am an attorney for men in Tulsa. And I’d like to talk to you about smoking and kids. And I’m going to start by saying when I’m talking about smoking, I’m not talking about weed or smoking any other drugs. I’m talking tobacco.

Believe it or not, this can actually affect your custody case in some situations. Judges do consider this. Now, there are some obvious situations where it really would be a serious consideration. For example, if your child has some kind of a respiratory illness or disease, or if they’re unusually sensitive, obviously if you smoke around the child, that’s a problem. But I’m going to sit here and tell you, judges will consider that.

For example, if you’re driving around in your car with a lit cigarette and the windows open or the windows up, and the kids are breathing in that cigarette smoke, judges can and do consider that the same.

The same if you smoke in your home. Also, if you have older kids and you’re not making a good effort to keep your tobacco products away from your children, then if you knowingly allow them access to your tobacco products, that could be considered child neglect and might … and if you get an aggressive prosecutor, they might try to come at you for contributing to the delinquency.

Even without the criminal aspects of it, it could affect your rights to your children, because it could be seen as fostering their delinquent behavior. And it could be seen as neglect.

So just because it’s tobacco, don’t assume that it’s completely irrelevant to your custody case. It is not. If you know your child has any condition that makes them sensitive to smoke, obviously don’t smoke around them. And in any event, keep those tobacco products somewhere secure.

With small children, you don’t want a situation where you could be alleged to have put them at risk for poisoning. With older children, you don’t want to be accused of knowingly allowing them to use your tobacco products. So it is actually something that a court can consider. And I can tell you from my own experience, courts do consider it.

And in fact, I’ve even seen courts take this step of ordering parties like Mom and Dad not to consume, not to smoke tobacco around the children because they have a sensitivity, not to smoke tobacco in the car because of the children breathing it in.

Don’t assume just because it’s tobacco that a judge won’t consider that because they will. If you are looking for a Men’s Child Custody Lawyer in Tulsa Ok, you should go to dads.law.