Category: Family Law
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How to Choose a Family Law Attorney in Phoenix
Finding a family law attorney Phoenix residents can actually rely on takes more than a search results page and a five-star average. Those numbers say almost nothing about whether an attorney regularly appears in Maricopa County Superior Court’s family division. Some attorneys handle these cases occasionally, alongside several other practice areas. Divorce, custody, and support…
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Same-Sex Divorce and Parenting in Arizona
A same sex divorce Arizona courts handle runs through the same dissolution process as any other marriage — Title 25, the same community property rules, the same parenting-time framework. What actually gets litigated in these cases usually isn’t the divorce itself. It’s parentage: who counts as a legal parent when only one spouse gave birth.…
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Military Divorce in Arizona: Luke AFB, Pensions, and the SCRA
A military divorce Arizona courts handle runs on the same community-property framework as any other Arizona dissolution, with one key difference: federal law controls how a service member’s retirement pay actually gets divided and paid out, not state law. Arizona courts still apply A.R.S. Title 25 to the marriage itself. But the pension at the…
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Divorce Mediation in Arizona: How It Works and When It Doesn’t
Divorce mediation Arizona courts lean on is not a soft alternative to the legal process — it is part of the process, woven directly into how Maricopa County and the rest of the state handle family cases. Most contested parenting disputes will pass through some form of mediation or alternative dispute resolution before a judge…
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Grandparents’ Rights in Arizona: Visitation and Placement
Grandparents rights Arizona law recognizes are real. They are also narrower than most grandparents hope, and stronger than most parents assume. The controlling statute is A.R.S. § 25-409, which governs all third-party claims involving a child. Visitation runs on one track. The far more demanding request for legal decision-making or placement runs on another. Arizona…
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Modifying Child Support in Arizona: When and How
To modify child support Arizona law demands more than a change of heart. It demands a change of circumstances, and a durable one. Under A.R.S. § 25-327, a court can modify an existing support order only on a showing of changed circumstances that are substantial and continuing. That standard filters out temporary bumps and buyer’s…
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Debt Division in an Arizona Divorce: Community Debt Rules
Debt division divorce Arizona rules start from a premise that surprises many people: debts run in community too. In a community property state, obligations either spouse takes on during the marriage are presumptively community debts. The marital community owes them, regardless of whose name is on the account. The credit card only one spouse used.…
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Who Keeps the House in an Arizona Divorce?
The family home divorce Arizona couples fight over hardest is usually the asset with the least flexible math. Nobody can split a house like an account. It arrives in the case carrying a mortgage, an emotional history, and often a tangle of separate and community money. Arizona’s framework is straightforward: property acquired during the marriage…
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Dividing Retirement Accounts in an Arizona Divorce: QDROs Explained
The QDRO divorce Arizona couples keep hearing about is the document that actually moves retirement money — and the one most often left unfinished. A divorce decree can say a 401(k) will split down the middle. The plan administrator will not touch a dollar until a qualified domestic relations order arrives. That is a separate…
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Hidden Assets in an Arizona Divorce: How They Get Found
Hidden assets divorce Arizona cases turn up more often than most people expect, and the law is built to find them. Arizona is a community property state. Each spouse holds a real ownership stake in what the other earned during the marriage. Concealing an account or undervaluing a business is more than bad faith. It…