Arizona Post Decree

The custody laws in Arizona now recognize the equal rights of fathers during a separation and divorce. Mothers no longer receive favorable treatment over Fathers in custody cases, whether married or not.

In Arizona, a father who is not married to his child's mother has no legal right to the child until paternity has been established, either by agreement (affidavit between the parents) and a written agreement or a court order outlines the schedule and decision making ability of each parent.

Arizona law provides that in most cases a parent not granted custody of the child is entitled to reasonable parenting time rights to ensure that the child has frequent and continuing contact with that parent. As a part of its custody order, the court also will decide what amount of parenting time is appropriate.

Is Arizona a Mother's State? No, Arizona is not a Mother's state. A judge in Arizona is not allowed to consider the gender of either parent when making a child custody order.A child born to an unmarried couple, however, does not have a legal father until paternity is established.

"Post-decree motions" are filed when a divorced (or legally separated) couple engages in "post-decree litigation," which basically means a couple is fighting about issues after the final divorce decree, and they're headed back to court to resolve them.

Enforcing an MSA must be done by filing a formal request or motion (legal paperwork) with the court. You will need to show the court how your ex-spouse failed to follow the terms of the agreement. There are many reasons you may need to ask the court to assist you with enforcing your agreement.

In Arizona, if you are an unmarried mother, you don't have to do anything to gain rights to your child. Unmarried mothers have all of the rights to the child until a Court says otherwise or that unmarried mother agrees with the unmarried father to give him rights to the child.

To enforce the order , a person may file a petition for enforcement, or the person may initiate a contempt proceeding with an order to show cause or order to appear , depending on the situation. Your court might have a do-it-yourself packet to enforce the decree that includes instructions and forms.

You can only see if your divorce is finalized online by searching for the divorce decree through a third-party records service. If your divorce decree shows up in the search, that means your divorce is finalized. If it doesn't, you'll need to call your attorney or the county clerk's office for more information.