Atkinson Lewis

As a Family Law Solicitor, do you every worry that drug and alcohol reports are skirting over the facts? Perhaps it’s a loaded question! But it has to be asked. Because – Too often, labs are pasting hair and blood results into template reports, and submitting them to the Family Courts without a shred of medical input. Leaving judges to make life-changing decisions, based on only half the story. …They don’t see MITIGATIONS: innocent reasons for the presence of drug or alcohol markers. …They don’t see CONTEXT, like how the parent’s history can change the risk to the child. …They don’t see BEHAVIOURAL CLUES that can pour doubt on a parent’s claim of abstinence. They just see cold, clinical data, without the nuance that becomes apparent through medical review. And when you’re deciding a child’s future, you have to ask – is that really good enough? At Atkinson Lewis, we believe the system can do better. So we’ve developed a more rigid testing process that makes lab data the first step only – and lets a medical expert have the final word. The result is a support service that takes care of everything. We collect the samples, and pass them to an accredited lab through a secure chain of custody. They analyse the hair or blood through multiple tests, and pass the results to our psychiatrist – a drug and alcohol specialist with decades of experience. We assess the parent’s test results and medical notes, and if needed move to a full psychiatric review. Then write up our report, setting out the probable and possible effects of any substance found. Allowing the judge to base their final decision on a measured set of conclusions. Of course, we know budgets are finite and medical review can seem a luxury. But to quote the landmark ruling of Justice Moylan (2010), that criticised a lab and local authority for simplifying results: “You can’t put everything on the hair test.” If you agree more diligence is needed, please call Atkinson Lewis on 01792 578623.