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Video Transcribed: So, what should you do if your ex is insisting on supervised visitation because she says you have an addiction problem or you’re mentally ill?

My name is Brian L. Jackson. I am an Oklahoma father’s rights attorney here with dads.law, and I want to talk to you about dealing with allegations of mental health problems or substance abuse problems. And I’m going to talk about it in two contexts. One is if it’s really not true, and two is if you do have those problems then what do you do to mitigate them?

Now, the first part of it is if it’s not true, the best thing you can do for yourself, obviously, you want to get a good lawyer involved. But then talk to that person about getting yourself drug tested if you’re accused of using drugs. If you’re accused of having mental health issues, get a psych eval. It’s going to cost you some money.

You’re going to spend a few hundred bucks to get that done. You may spend more. It’s worth it. You can cut that shit off at the knees real fast if you go do this voluntarily. And if it comes back with something, follow whatever the recommendations are. If it doesn’t come back with anything, then you have that piece of evidence that you can use later to refute whatever it is she’s trying to accuse you of.

Now, if you do have a substance abuse problem or you do have a mental health problem, or you have that history, then it does make your litigation more complicated. But it’s not necessarily a death sentence to you having equal rights to your kid if you handle it correctly.

Obviously, the most important thing is, if you are actively engaged in drug abuse, if you have untreated mental health, get in treatment. Go get with an expert, get with somebody who can steer you in the right direction as far as getting help.

And then you want to do whatever they recommend and do it without hesitation. It’s important to deal with these problems. And I can tell you from experience, that judges will draw a huge distinction between the person who has these problems, acknowledges they have problems, and gets treatment versus someone who does not.

The bigger thing they’re… I mean, they’re always focused on what’s at best for that child. So, if you are taking affirmative steps to correct your problems, that helps you because it shows them, that you recognize there’s a problem and you’re addressing it. And you want to keep meticulous records about treatments you have, be able to prove you’re compliant, and you’ve done everything you were supposed to do. That’s how you address that problem.

You may also in a situation like that, want to be prepared for the fact that you may not immediately get exactly what you want in terms of equal rights to the child. Because you may have to demonstrate, if you have a recent history of substance abuse or mental health problems, you’re going to have to demonstrate to the court that you’ve moved on from that and that’s not a problem anymore.

So, it may be that you’re going to have to, in the short term, live with supervised visitation. And I say in the short term, it’s not a forever thing. It shouldn’t be a forever thing. But you may need to live with that in the short term to demonstrate that, “No, really, I did take care of that. I’m not having that problem anymore.”

And then you want to make sure you go back on those reviews and go back on those reviews and keep pushing it. Keep pushing it, showing, “No, I am fixing this problem. You can see, that I am fixing this problem. Let’s go to the next step. Let’s go to the next step.” But the first point is, that you’ve got to take the issue seriously and get yourself help if you need it.

And guys, if you are in a situation like that, you’ve either been falsely accused or you really do have some problems, you do need a good lawyer among other things. 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.