This blog post will run through the best tips and things to know if you are going through a divorce and you are married to a person who drinks too much alcohol.

The tips on this post are focused on divorces with children, but could be useful to know for any case.

It is important to keep in mind that your partner may be blowing you off when you voice concerns about their alcohol use.  Do not let this invalidate your concerns, since it is a fact that alcohol makes several other activities more dangerous such as:

1. taking care of your financial decisions;
2. taking care of children;
3. driving; 
4. working;
5. or doing anything physical

Certainly, alcohol drinking can be a cause of your divorce without you even knowing it because you may not know what your relationship would function like without the interference of alcohol in either yourself or your partner.

5,510 divorce cases were appealed in 2021-2022 across the U.S.  And, of those 5,510 cases, 493 of them involved accusations of alcohol abuse.  That is 8.9% of the total divorce cases in the U.S. having something to do with a complaint about alcohol drinking. 

So What Do You Do IF You Are Facing a Divorce From An Alcoholic?

First, you will want to document some proof that alcohol is being used by your partner.  Evidence that would be possibly accepted by the court for this is:

video,

testimony from you or others,

audio recordings  or

photographs

any of which that proves the drinking is occurring.  

Coming up with evidence of drinking alcohol has never been more readily available than now with instagram, TikTok, Facebook and the like.  Posts on these forums are used in divorce cases absolutely all the time.

Once you have some evidence of the drinking, you will want to tell the judge about your concern about your partner’s alcohol abuse.  

You can tell the judge about your concern on your own or through your lawyer. Obviously, it is easier to do this with a lawyer but we recognize not everyone is going to hire an attorney for help with their divorce.

Please note that many concerns people have during a divorce are not necessarily something a divorce judge will care about or even have the power to do much about, but alcohol abuse is something judges do care about and can help you with in your divorce. 

This is partly because judges today know that alcochol can put children in enormous danger.  For instance:

But even if a couple does not have an infant, many judges are aware of the multiple adverse effects of alcohol on personality and competence such as these which appear on Abbey Care Foundation:

How Alcohol Effects Can Lead To A Bad Personality That Causes Your Spouse To Want A Divorce  

Why Is Telling a Judge About Your Spouse’s Alcohol Abuse Going To Help You In Your Divorce?

So, because alcohol is a major underlying cause of divorce in the U.S. and because it is dangerous to children and families, if you tell a judge that you are concerned about alcohol abuse, AND you ask for Soberlink a judge is likely to order it.

The orders can automatically cause visitation to not occur with the child, in the instance of a failed test.

Soberlink can function as a way to have assurance that the other parent of your child is not drinking, and that there are immediate consequences if they do.

You can work out several variables in your custody or divorce order such as the timeframes for when the drinking parent must not drink if and when they are going to see their child.

There are contexts in which alcohol drinking matters if the parties do not have children as well, such as if the partner is to act as the fiduciary to some extent for you during your divorce.

Take Aways:

Drinking alcohol is a leading cause of divorce in the U.S.

Drinking alcohol is dangerous to your family and should be taken seriously.

Judges have the power and ability to monitor alcohol consumption in divorce or custody cases if you ask for this with a professional and appropriate approach.