QLD Interim Order - Drug Testing

[JadeGoldCoast]

Hi all,

I'm fairly new to this forum but have had a little look around and a search but couldn't find any answers to my following question.

My partner is about to apply for court as his ex partner has again cut contact with his almost 4 year old son.
He is going through a lawyer and has been told he has a likely chance at receiving shared custody.
His ex over the past two years has accused my partner of being a drug addict and has threatened to cut contact for many reasons however this is the second time she's actually stopped contact. Her reasoning behind the drug accusations are because my partner used to smoke a bit of weed casually with friends while he was dating his ex. My partner has never smoked weed while I have been with him for the past 2 years however.

We will be applying for interim orders when we apply for court so we can have access to his son. The ex lives an extremely unstable lifestyle and has moved over 6 times since splitting with my partner and has spent the last 6 months relying on my partner and his family to help care for their son as she was in an abusive relationship and her house was unsafe for a child.

Our only concern regarding the court case is that the ex is requesting hair follicle tests to be completed and although we know he will come up clean for her accusations of weed use, we recently visited Vegas and lets just say we enjoyed ourselves while we were there. We are confident that by the time my partner attends the final hearing his hair will be completely clean (they test for 3 months i've read online) as Vegas was a 'when in Rome' thing and something we do not take part in during our normal lives.

Basically I'm wanting to know whether he could be court ordered to complete a hair follicle test at the interim hearing? If we had knows this was going to happen we would have plated it much safer, but unfortunately we did not see this coming (the ex has refused custody after she changed her mind about allowing her son to attend child care after agreeing and sending through the son's immunisation records the week earlier).

We have worried about the mother's parenting for a while now but are also aware that there are different parenting styles and so have done our best to keep things amicable with her for the child's sake. We feel she is psychologically unstable and will be requesting a psychological analysis to be performed on both parents (if this is possible) and my partner is also worried that she may be using strong prescription medication which may be affecting her judgement regarding what is best for her child (she was using the prescribed medication for the 18 months her and my partner were together and we have messages proving this where she has laughed at my partner stating they are legal and a judge won't be able to say anything about her use of them). I have asked my partner's lawyer how the judge would view a tolerance and dependence on prescription medication around a child however she told me she was unsure and would have to have a research. Can anyone on here offer any advice on this topic?

So sorry for the long winded message - I planned to make this a short one however I felt the more information I included the better picture I could paint of our situation. I will also add that for the past year my partner has only conversed with his ex via text and while in person as she used to abuse my partner and then pretend like nothing had happened - so everything we have stated can be proven in messages.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks
Jade

 

[sammy01]

I think the court is more likely to seek on-going blood or urine testing... They want to see if he is a frequent user.
Agree to the tests - BUT request she do the same...
Now if you're only applying for orders, it will take months to get in the court and for unstable ex to demand hair folicle test.... By then Vegas will be outa ya hair

 

[Migz]

So, here is what I can add from real life facts;
1. Yes a Judge can order hair follicle testing to be done, if it is in either parties interim orders. As it is written into our orders, due to the mothers previous "ice" usage. Hair follicle testing is to be carried out randomly twice per year, at the fathers cost. So in your case leave it upto the ex to have it presented in her interim orders, and make sure when it finally comes before the judge, you say you will gladly comply with the mothers request as long as the mother also picks up the tab and gets the testing done as well (this will show up her prescription habit as well)... as it's in excess of $500 per test (so once again over two grand for her request to be carried out per year, I doubt she will follow it through after the very first test).

2. Next if you are seeking an indepth psych analysis to be carried out, keep in mind these are not free also, and figures quoted have been inexcess of $2,000 per parents report.

3. Keep in mind Family law isn't about the best interest of the child its about bleeding both parents dry of funds, and keeping them at each others throats for as long as possible...otherwise a far better system would of been implemented years ago. ie. starting with 50/50, which sounds like it would work in your situation.

4. Last piece of advice, have well written "interim" and "Final" orders, allow for growth in time with his sons 4 year old working upto 50/50 over the course of a year or so.

 

[JadeGoldCoast]

Thank you so much sammy01 and Migz for your replies. I really appreciate your time!

We will def be requesting that the mother is randomly drug tested too. She's actually requested mediation again today (my partner now has 5 certificates from the past 18 months so there is no way he will be doing that).
We are hoping she might finally be coming around to the fact that her lifestyle and refusing contact between my partner and his son may be viewed negatively by the courts.
Her latest is that facetime cannot occur between my partner and his son as he is a drug addict. Not sure how an alleged drug addiction could affect a child through a phone but there's not much we can do about that. She has also messaged my partner telling him how much better his son is doing without having his father in his life. I am hoping a judge will see through this and see she is actively trying to alienate my partner form his son.

The lawyer did state we could ask the ex to cover the cost of the hair follicle test if it came back negative so we will have another discussion about this with her. She's on Centrelink though so we're not sure how a judge would feel about ordering her to cover the costs of both.
Also really good to know about the cost of the psych analysis too. I think we will see how her behaviour continues between now and the interim hearing. If she realises she is at fault and starts to back down there may be no need, however if she still refuses to acknowledge or understand how she is affecting her child then I think the analysis may be worth every cent.

Does anyone know how I can start researching past court cases? I have seen a post on this forum where someone explained how but I can't for the life of me find it now. Really curious to see how a judge would view a dependence on prescription medication, surely this has been brought up in other cases.

We have discussed with our lawyer suggesting a staggered order where we apply for 5 days a fortnight with my partners son and then once he is of school age request 50/50 care.

Once again, thanks so much!
Jade