Introduction to FASD Related Court Cases

Fetal Alcohol And Drug Unit
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
University of Washington School of Medicine
&
University of Washington School of Law

There are a substantial number of court decisions related to FAS/FAE. For a general summary of these judical opinions, click here. In some of these cases there was a dispute about whether a particular individual had FAS/FAE. In most of the cases the court was asked to decide the legal or practical significance of the fact that an individual had FAS/FAE.

You can read summaries of these cases in several different ways:

  • Pick the subject matter you are interested in, and obtain summaries of all cases on that topic.
  • Look at all important cases decided in a particular state.
  • Look at an alphabetical list of all the federal cases.
  • Look at some international cases.
  • Look at an alphabetical list of all the summarized cases.
  • Look at an alphabetical list of all the summarized cases, organized by subject matter.

    • In most instances the case summary includes a link which will take you to the full text of the opinion.

    There are a large number of court decisions involving the termination of parental rights in which the judge mentions that the child or children in question had FAS or FAE. In most of these cases that diagnosis played no apparent role in the court's decision, and those opinions are not summarized.

    These summaries were made possible in part by the Dewey Ballantine LLP FASD Advocacy Project.


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