SB1658 - 572R

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Arizona:

Section 1. Section 25-403, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended to read:

START_STATUTE25-403. Legal decision-making; best interests of child

A. The court shall determine legal decision-making and parenting time, either originally or on petition for modification, in accordance with the best interests of the child. The court shall consider all factors that are relevant to the child's physical and emotional well-being, including in the following order of importance:

8. 1. Whether there has been domestic violence or child abuse pursuant to section 25-403.03.

6. 2. Which parent is more likely to allow the child frequent, meaningful and continuing contact with the other parent. This paragraph does not apply if the court determines that a parent is acting in good faith to protect the child from witnessing an act of domestic violence or being a victim of domestic violence or child abuse.

5. 3. The mental and physical health of all individuals involved.

1. 4. The past, present and potential future relationship between the parent and the child. The court shall consider section 25-403.07.

2. 5. The interaction and interrelationship of the child with the child's parent or parents, the child's siblings and any other person who may significantly affect the child's best interest interests.

3. 6. The child's adjustment to home, school and community.

4. 7. If the child is of suitable age and maturity, the wishes of the child as to legal decision-making and parenting time.

7. 8. Whether one parent intentionally misled the court to cause an unnecessary delay, to increase the cost of litigation or to persuade the court to give a legal decision-making or a parenting time preference to that parent.

9. The nature and extent of coercion or duress used by a parent in obtaining an agreement regarding legal decision-making or parenting time.

10. Whether a parent has complied with chapter 3, article 5 of this title.

11. Whether either parent was convicted of an act of false reporting of child abuse or neglect under section 13-2907.02. If either parent has been convicted of an act of false reporting of child abuse or neglect, the court shall consider the conviction a presumptive factor against awarding that parent joint legal decision-making or equal parenting time.

B. In a contested legal decision-making or parenting time case, the court shall make specific findings on the record about all relevant factors and the reasons for which the decision is in the best interests of the child. END_STATUTE

Sec. 2. Section 25-404, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended to read:

START_STATUTE25-404. Temporary orders

A. A party to a legal decision-making and parenting time proceeding may move for a temporary order. This motion must be supported by pleadings as provided in section 25-411. The court may award temporary legal decision-making and parenting time under the standards of section 25-403 after a hearing, or, if there is no objection, solely on the basis of the pleadings. the court may set the matter for an evidentiary hearing if the pleadings evidence the risk of child abuse as prescribed in section 25-403.

B. If a proceeding for dissolution of marriage or legal separation is dismissed, any temporary legal decision-making or parenting time order is vacated unless a parent or the child's custodian moves that the proceeding continue as a legal decision-making or parenting time proceeding and the court finds, after a hearing, that the circumstances of the parents and the best interest of the child require that a legal decision-making or parenting time plan decree be issued.

C. If a legal decision-making or parenting time proceeding commenced in the absence of a petition for dissolution of marriage or legal separation is dismissed, any temporary custody legal decision-making or parenting time order thereby is vacated. END_STATUTE

Sec. 3. Section 25-405, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended to read:

START_STATUTE25-405. Interviews by court; professional assistance

A. The court may interview the child in chambers to ascertain the child's wishes as to the child's custodian and as to parenting time.

B. The court may seek the advice of professional personnel, whether or not employed by the court on a regular basis. The advice given shall be in writing and shall be made available by the court to counsel, on request, under such terms as the court determines. Counsel may examine as a witness any professional personnel consulted by the court, unless that right is waived.

C. Either parent may request that the court appoint professional personnel to interview the child in the court's chambers in the presence of the judge who is assigned to the matter. An interview conducted pursuant to this subsection shall be conducted by professional personnel through the superior court's family conciliation services. END_STATUTE

Sec. 4. Title 25, chapter 4, article 1, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended by adding section 25-407.01, to read:

START_STATUTE25-407.01. Legal decision-making; parenting time; temporary orders; right to jury trial; arbitration; jury findings; priority

A. In any legal decision-making or parenting time matter in which a temporary order has been entered by the court, if either parent has been awarded less than thirty-five percent parenting time or has not been awarded joint legal decision-making, that parent may file a motion to request a jury trial. A jury trial requested pursuant to this section shall be set within one hundred twenty days after the filing of the motion to request a jury trial.

B. If a jury trial requested pursuant to subsection a of this section cannot be set within one hundred twenty days after the filing of the motion to request a jury trial, the court shall appoint an arbitrator who is licensed to practice law in this state to hear the matter. Each parent shall have two chances to object to the appointed arbitrator. An objection to the appointed arbitrator shall be made by filing the objection with the court within three days after the arbitrator is appointed.

C. In a contested legal decision-making or parenting time proceeding, the jury shall make specific findings on the record of the factors prescribed in section 25-403, subsection a and the reasons for which the jury verdict is in the best INTERESTs of the child.

D. The request for a jury trial pursuant to this section shall take priority over other civil cases. END_STATUTE

Sec. 5. Section 25-411, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended to read:

START_STATUTE25-411. Modification of legal decision-making or parenting time; affidavit; child abuse; contents; military families

A. A person shall not make a motion to modify a legal decision-making or parenting time decree earlier than one year after its date, unless the court permits allows it to be made on the basis of affidavits that there is reason to believe the child's present environment may seriously endanger the child's physical, mental, moral or emotional health or if a person alleges a change in the factors prescribed in section 25-403, subsection A. At any time after a joint legal decision-making order is entered, a parent may petition the court for modification of the order on the basis of evidence that domestic violence involving a violation of section 13-1201 or 13-1204, spousal abuse or child abuse occurred since the entry of the joint legal decision-making order. Six months after a joint legal decision-making order is entered, a parent may petition the court for modification of the order based on the failure of the other parent to comply with the provisions of the order. A motion or petition to modify an order shall meet the requirements of this section. Except as otherwise provided in this section, if a parent is a member of the United States armed forces, the court shall consider the terms of that parent's military family care plan to determine what is in the child's best interest during that parent's military deployment.

B. If the parent with whom the parent's child resides a majority of the time receives temporary duty, deployment, activation or mobilization orders from the United States military that involve moving a substantial distance away from the parent's residence, a court shall not enter a final order modifying parental rights and responsibilities and parent-child contact in an existing order until ninety days after the deployment ends, unless a modification is agreed to by the deploying parent.

C. The court shall not consider a parent's absence caused by deployment or mobilization or the potential for future deployment or mobilization as the sole factor supporting a real, substantial and unanticipated change in circumstances pursuant to this section.

D. On motion of a deploying or nondeploying, mobilizing or absent military parent, the court, after a hearing, shall enter a temporary order modifying parental rights and responsibilities or parent-child contact during the period of deployment or mobilization if:

1. A military parent who has legal decision-making or parenting time pursuant to an existing court order has received notice from military leadership that the military parent will deploy or mobilize in the near future.

2. The deployment or mobilization would have a material effect on the military parent's ability to exercise parental rights and responsibilities or parent-child contact.

E. On motion of a deploying parent, if reasonable advance notice is given and good cause is shown, the court shall allow that parent to present testimony and evidence by electronic means with respect to parenting time or parent-child contact matters instituted pursuant to this section if the deployment of that parent has a material effect on that parent's ability to appear in person at a regularly scheduled hearing. For the purposes of this subsection, "electronic means" includes communication by telephone or video teleconference.

F. The court shall hear motions for modification because of deployment as expeditiously as possible.

G. If a military parent receives military temporary duty, deployment, activation or mobilization orders that involve moving a substantial distance away from the military parent's residence or that otherwise have a material effect on the military parent's ability to exercise parenting time, at the request of the military parent, for the duration of the military parent's absence the court may delegate the military parent's parenting time, or a portion of that time, to a child's family member, including a stepparent, or to another person who is not the child's parent but who has a close and substantial relationship to the minor child, if the court determines that is in the child's best interest. The court shall not allow the delegation of parenting time to a person who would be subject to limitations on parenting time. The parties shall attempt to resolve disputes regarding delegation of parenting time through the dispute resolution process specified in their parenting plan, unless excused by the court for good cause shown. A court order pursuant to this subsection does not establish separate rights to parenting time for a person other than a parent.

H. All temporary modification orders pursuant to this section shall include a specific transition schedule to facilitate a return to the predeployment order within ten days after the deployment ends, taking into consideration the child's best interests.

I. A decree or order that a court enters in contemplation of or during the military deployment of a parent outside of the continental United States shall specifically reference the deployment and include provisions governing the legal decision-making or parenting time arrangements, or both, of the minor child after the deployment ends. Either parent may file a petition with the court after the deployment ends to modify the decree or order, in compliance with subsection L of this section. The court shall hold a hearing or conference on the petition within thirty days after the petition is filed.

J. The court may modify an order granting or denying parenting time rights whenever modification would serve the best interest of the child, but the court shall not restrict a parent's parenting time rights unless it finds that the parenting time would endanger seriously the child's physical, mental, moral or emotional health.

K. If after a legal decision-making or parenting time order is in effect one of the parents is charged with a dangerous crime against children as defined in section 13-705, child molestation as defined in section 13-1410 or an act of domestic violence as prescribed in section 13-3601 in which the victim is a minor, the other parent may petition the court for an expedited hearing. Pending the expedited hearing, the court may suspend parenting time or change legal decision-making ex parte.

L. To modify any type of legal decision-making or parenting time order a person shall submit an affidavit or verified petition setting forth detailed facts supporting the requested modification and shall give notice, together with a copy of the affidavit or verified petition, to other parties to the proceeding, who may file opposing affidavits. The court shall deny the motion unless it finds that adequate cause for hearing the motion is established by the pleadings, in which case it shall set a date for hearing on why the requested modification should not be granted.

M. The court shall assess attorney fees and costs against a party seeking modification if the court finds that the modification action is vexatious and constitutes harassment.

N. Subsection L of this section does not apply if the requested relief is for the modification or clarification of parenting time and not for a change of legal decision-making. END_STATUTE