It Depends on Why She’s Unemployed
Video Transcribed: Does unemployment make a person an unsuitable placement for a child in child custody litigation? My name is Brian L. Jackson. I am an Oklahoma father’s rights attorney here with dads.law, and I’m going to talk about the question of unemployment in the context of child custody litigation. This comes up a fair amount.
I get a lot of clients asking me about this, who tend to be of the position that if the other party is unemployed, that makes them automatically an unsuitable placement. Sorry to tell you this guys but that’s not by itself a reason for the court to deny her custody. It is evident that she and it could be evidence that she’s not very responsible.
It depends on why she’s unemployed but you see plenty of situations where your parents that are on welfare don’t work and are not getting their children taken away by the state. It doesn’t automatically make you unfit. It doesn’t automatically make you an unsuitable placement.
Now, if you’re talking about a situation where the person’s chronically unemployed because they use drugs, then you might have a situation. If they drink too much and they’re chronically unemployed, you might have a situation. If it’s because they have mental health issues, any of that kind of things, yeah.
But the mere fact that the person is chronically unemployed by itself, doesn’t necessarily make them an unsuitable placement in the eyes of the court. Is it relevant? Absolutely. But here’s the thing, you hammer that too hard, this is what can happen. A court can say, “You know what? You’re absolutely right. That’s a problem. You work, and you have the ability to pay child support, which would help that situation. Guess what? Get your checkbook out.”
It is a relevant issue. Most things are relevant in child custody litigation but it does not make her automatically an unfit, unsuitable placement. That’s something to be aware of. If you have questions about any of that, if you ever need a Tulsa child support attorney or a Men’s Child Custody Lawyer in Tulsa Ok, you can find one at Dads.Law.
