Q. How is paternity established? While establishing the identity of a child’s biological mother is virtually always easy, establishing paternity –or fatherhood – – is not always simple. “Who’s your daddy?” is an emotionally-charged question especially if asked in the context of a prospective divorce. Paternity lawsuits may be brought when the identity of a…

Q: Can child support arrears be collected against a missing delinquent parent? Along with having children, comes the obligation to financially support them—whether you are married to the co-parent or not. When couples who don’t have children together get split up or divorce, they can often make a clean break from each other (with the…

Q: What happens if I fall behind in child support? Under Arizona law, custody and visitation are known as “legal decision making” and “parenting time,” respectively and the courts strongly encourage both parents to support and be actively involved in their children’s lives. Sometimes that isn’t possible. Like when one parent is incarcerated or in…

How can I enforce a child support order? One of the key issues in a divorce is child support that a non-custodial parent is required to pay. Far too often, however, so-called deadbeat parents are delinquent and owe back child support. That’s the bad news. The good news is that there are state and federal…

This summer we got a brutal reminder of just how contentious custody disputes can become.  A man in Navajo County recently shot and killed the mother of his grandchildren and her mother on the courthouse steps after a custody hearing. According to a report in The Republic, the children at the heart of this dispute…

Is it fair to use Facebook and Twitter to publicly shame “deadbeat” parents? It is no secret that Arizona has a high rate of unpaid child support. The state has used various methods, including issuing warrants for arrest, in an attempt to collect back payments. Unfortunately, these methods haven’t worked for the worst offenders, and…

Who pays for college of offspring in a divorce? Divorcing parents have a number of issues to resolve in co-parenting, particularly regarding how to pay for their children’s college expenses. This requires combining their income power to handle rising tuition rates. During the time a couple was married, there may have been a savings plan…

I recently lost my job and would like to decrease my child support amount. How is this accomplished? Under Arizona law, orders involving legal decision-making (child custody) parenting time, child support, or spousal support (spousal maintenance) may be modified by citing a “substantial and continuing ” change in circumstances. Of course, each area requires a…

What happens if a couple enters into a surrogate agreement and later splits?  Surrogacy and gestational carrier laws have proven historically tricky for family courts to unravel, especially if the relationship between the father, mother, and surrogate sours before the birth of the child. To better understand the dynamic, there are two types of “surrogates”…

Can I enforce a child support order if the other parent is out of the country? Your child support order from an Arizona court can be enforced abroad. The United States has reciprocity agreements with 16 countries and Canadian provinces. The Department of State is negotiating declarations with others on behalf of all U.S. jurisdictions,…