How Does Arizona Handle Child Custody?

There is always a chance that child custody can become a speedbump in your life. Whether you are splitting with a partner, reworking your relationship with an ex, or dealing with some other relationship issue, child custody is extremely tough and a very sensitive matter.

But how does Arizona manage it, and what kind of help might you need?

Mother’s Rights

Arizona used to have a heavy bias towards women in child custody cases, but a modern Arizona court is meant to work for a more balanced result. More and more cases are being finalized with almost equal time for both parents, so implants usually only happen to protect the child.

This means that Arizona isn’t a ‘mother’s rights’ state anymore and instead looks at the objective facts and evidence to make sure that the children involved are given proper support and kept safe. If one parent puts them at risk, then the court will use that in their judgment, rather than defaulting to one parent more than the other.

Factors in Child Custody

Child custody takes a lot of work to sort out since there can be hundreds of reasons for a parent to be more or less suitable as the ‘main’ parent of a split couple. Some things will make a parent better suited to having the majority of the time with the child, and others can actually lock them out of it almost entirely.

For example, a parent with poor mental health may get more time with their children if their poor mental health came from abuse or being overworked in the relationship. However, serious mental health issues that can cause them to get violent might put them lower on the priority scale.

If a child is old enough to express themselves properly, they might also have the option of deciding whether or not they want to go with a particular parent. They can also try to judge their relationship or decide who would be best as their main parent, but this really depends on the situation.

Finally, any attempt to mislead the court or force a certain decision can work against that parent since it proves that they are desperate to the point of lying, making up fake evidence, or falsely accusing their former partner of something they did not do.

Do I Need a Lawyer?

Child custody is a very complex issue of both law and morality. It involves presenting facts and letting decisions be made that might not be what you want, especially if a breakup was violent and aggressive, but both sides are still capable parents in their own right.

What is important is having a lawyer there to look through everything that is presented. They can help filter down key pieces of evidence to support your case, work out if there is anything that might work against you, and generally help you get a better understanding of your own chances of a good outcome.

On top of that, a child custody lawyer is probably much better at identifying breaches of the law than you are. This means that they can identify situations where your partner might be trying to get around certain laws or make you look bad, something that can be quite common for people who have just left abusive relationships.

Temporary Child Custody

In many cases, a divorce means that a child gets temporary custody. This comes as a temporary order, usually one that aims to disrupt the child’s life as little as possible by designating the parent and home that they are staying at. This allows the divorce proceedings to continue without interrupting the child’s life.

However, emergency orders are filed (with a 24-hour delay) in situations where a child may be in danger. This can involve things like abusive parents, drug use, mental health issues, or anything else that the child can’t be exposed to safely for longer periods of time.

Something similar can happen if one parent is moving out of the state – they have to give a minimum of 45 days notice, and if the child is going with them, the other parent has 30 days to object. This is to prevent one parent from suddenly leaving with the child before any mutual agreements are made.