CHANGES IN CUSTODY STATUTES, COMING JANUARY 1, 2013
Following a decision as to whether or not the Court is going to award sole decision making authority to one parent or award both parents joint decision making authority, the Court then addresses the parenting time for each parent. Regardless of whether a sole or joint legal decision making decision is made by the Court, the statutes provide that each parent is “entitled to reasonable parenting time to ensure that the minor child has substantial, frequent, meaningful and continuing contact with the parent. The exception, of course, would be if the Court found that parenting time would endanger the child’s physical, mental, moral, or emotional heath.
However, note the language used, i.e. substantial, frequent, meaningful, and continuing contact with the parent. Arguments could be made that what this means is that each parent should have equal parenting time, or something close to equal parenting time, in order to meet this definition. Again, this is an area that will have to be addressed through the courts in the future.
All of the above is a brief summary of coming changes. In the future, additional blogs will be dedicated to this major change in the Arizona custody statutes.
Should you find yourself currently in a divorce, paternity, child custody, or custody and parenting time modification proceeding before the Maricopa County Superior Court, or if you are have issues regarding any of those issues or any other family law issue, including the receipt or payment of child custody and/or spousal maintenance, please do not hesitate to contact our office and schedule a free 30 minute consultation to discuss same with the attorney.