Category: Family Law
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Spousal Maintenance in Arizona: Who Qualifies and How Long
Spousal maintenance in Arizona isn’t automatic, and it isn’t a reward for a long marriage on its own. Under A.R.S. § 25-319, a spouse first has to clear a threshold test before a court even considers an amount. Only after that threshold is met do the state’s spousal maintenance guidelines — effective since September 2022…
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Arizona Child Support Guidelines: How the Calculation Works
Arizona child support guidelines don’t leave the number up to a judge’s gut sense of fairness. Under A.R.S. § 25-320, the state uses an Income Shares Model. The court estimates what the child would have cost if the parents still lived together. It then splits that amount between the parents based on their proportional incomes.…
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Child Custody in Arizona: What the Term Actually Means Now
Arizona hasn’t used the word “custody” in its statutes since 2013. The law now splits child custody in Arizona into two separate pieces: legal decision-making, which is the authority to decide a child’s education, health care, and religion, and parenting time, which is the actual schedule of when the child is with each parent. A…
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The Arizona Divorce Process, Step by Step
Arizona is a no-fault state. Neither spouse has to prove wrongdoing to end the marriage — only that it’s “irretrievably broken.” But no-fault doesn’t mean no process. The Arizona divorce process runs through the same fixed steps whether both spouses agree on everything or fight over every line item. Two parts trip people up the…