On Jan. 19 2006 temporary joint legal custody was granted to my ex and myself with primary physical custody granted to the father and supervised visitation on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m granted to myself. The reason for this was I failed a drug test in court the day of first hearing. The catch to this is my husband is a regular user of meth and cocaine and his lawyer supplied the drug test in court so he was able to prepare for test and passed his. Since the hearing I submitted myself to an outpatient drug rehab program and successfully completed it. However the program did not drug test me during the program but I have a certificate from the facility showing completion of program. We are going for a review hearing in May and I desperatly want my son back. DSS has not been involved, my child was not neglected while in my care and the guardian ad lietm told me if I had passed test court would have ruled in my favor for custody of my son. I have not had any drug screens since the one in Jan. how is this going to affect me in court at review hearing? I have the certificate to prove I willingly admitted myself for treatment. I don't have insurance so funds are limited to the availabilty of services. I still have 3 weeks to prepare for court please help me with any suggestions!

Hello heartbroken:

He has a lawyer and YOU don't?? I don't care how wonderful you are, and how much you've cleaned up your life, if you don't have a lawyer at the hearing, YOU'LL LOSE.

Court isn't about right. It isn't about fair. It's about winning. Without a lawyer, you can't win.

So, you need to do two things: 1) spend time shopping for a lawyer who will take your case with payments. You'll find one. 2) Change your name to "mother who's gonna kick butt".

excon

On Jan. 19 2006 temporary joint legal custody was granted to my ex and myself with primary physical custody granted to the father and supervised visitation on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m granted to myself. The reason for this was i failed a drug test in court the day of first hearing. The catch to this is my husband is a regular user of meth and cocaine and his lawyer supplied the drug test in court so he was able to prepare for test and passed his. Since the hearing i submitted myself to an outpatient drug rehab program and successfully completed it. However the program did not drug test me during the program but I have a certificate from the facility showing completion of program. We are going for a review hearing in May and I desperatly want my son back. DSS has not been involved, my child was not neglected while in my care and the guardian ad lietm told me if I had passed test court would have ruled in my favor for custody of my son. I have not had any drug screens since the one in Jan. how is this going to affect me in court at review hearing? I have the certificate to prove I willingly admitted myself for treatment. I dont have insurance so funds are limited to the availabilty of services. I still have 3 weeks to prepare for court please help me with any suggestions!!
Im sorry for the confusion about the lawyer. I do in fact have a lawyer for the hearing. I am using the same one I had for the first hearing. And yes, I'm going to mop the floor with his sorry a**! Thanks for your input.

Heartbroken mother I am wondering how this all panned out for you as I am in similar situation