The Impact of Personal Issues on Custody Cases

Hello, my name is Brian L. Jackson. I’m a Tulsa father’s rights attorney here with Dads.Law, where fathers are not disposable. So I want to talk a little bit today about other considerations that might affect, like personal issues that might affect your custody case. I’ve talked about criminal, I’ve talked about civil, I’ve talked about, I talked a little bit about traffic court. So other personal issues.

If you have untreated mental health issues, that will definitely affect your custody case, particularly certain types of mental health issues. If you have substance abuse, I’ve mentioned that before. Also, your living circumstances will affect it. Needless to say, if you live in a very small home and you have like five kids, you’re going to have a problem if you don’t have five bedrooms for those five kids, especially if they’re older. Because at some point in time, they’re not going to bunk like three, you know, like two girls and a boy in one bedroom for an overnight. And no, the court’s just not going to do that. So it’s something to be aware of.

Consideration of Significant Others

Other personal issues. If you are your significant other, you should be aware you are going to be held to some level of account for the people you bring around to kids. And if your significant other has issues, you know, they have a criminal history. They have substance issues. They have mental health issues that aren’t being treated. They have a DHS history. Then, yeah, that’s going to be imputed to you if you let that person live in your home or if you have that person around your kids. And, you know, that’s a potential issue. And it may mean you have to make a judgment call.

The other thing is with significant others, if they really don’t get along with your child’s mother, that alone could be a reason for the court to tell you you can’t have that person around. So those are some examples. I could go down a litany of issues because almost anything is technically relevant and it’s all going to be given the amount of weight the court thinks it has. So the court may or may not give a shit about something.

Additional Factors to Consider

But even something as seemingly innocuous as smoking could be an issue. It’s not uncommon for courts to order that nobody could smoke tobacco around a minor child, especially young children. Is it legal? Yeah. Are they going to be okay with you smoking it around the child? Probably not. It’s not uncommon to be told you can’t have overnight guests of the opposite sex. So if you want to have the proverbial booty call, don’t do it when you have the kids. Because, yeah, the court can consider that and the court will consider that.

And, guys, if you have questions about any of that stuff, I would encourage you to go to Dads.Law, where fathers are not disposable.

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If you need further guidance or have specific questions about personal issues that may affect your child custody case, we offer ainitial strategy session .