by Jonathan
Goodliffe, Solicitor
Extract:
“THE LAW'S ATTITUDE TO
ALCOHOL PROBLEMS
Most lawyers who practise in the
field of family law are aware that many of their clients' problems
are alcohol related. In the early part of my career I specialised in
domestic violence cases. Most of the husbands against whom I obtained
domestic violence injunctions, and many of the victims, had alcohol
problems of one kind or another.
English law and lawyers, however,
tend to treat alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence as something
incidental to disputes arising in family law, rather than central to
them.
There are several reasons for this:
- Lawyers are trained to understand human behaviour by assuming that people are responsible for their behaviour and that their motives and actions are taken at face value. The law recognises that some people are mentally disordered and therefore not fully responsible for their actions. However, to quote an American court judgement:
"... alcoholic behaviour, unlike insanity on the one hand or ordinary conscious behaviour on the other, is neither purely involuntary nor purely voluntary. Individuals who eventually become physically addicted to alcohol, at some point voluntarily chose to drink. Not all drinking alcoholics are totally unable to control their behaviour."”
The Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)
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