Rule 10, Part 3

March 18, 2013

This is the third of three posts about Rule 10, Arizona Rules of Family Law Procedure.   Rule 10 covers the use of either a best interests attorney or an attorney for the child in a family court proceeding.  What’s the difference between a best interests attorney and an attorney for the child?   That […]

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Rule 10, Part 2

March 16, 2013

This post is the second of three about Rule 10, Arizona Rules of Family Law Procedure.    Rule 10 deals with the use of a best interests attorney, attorney for a child, and a court-appointed advisor (CAA) in family court proceedings. How each role participates in courtroom proceedings and litigation is described in Rule 10E: E. […]

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Rule 10, ARFLP, Revisited

March 13, 2013

Even with no recent cases or guidance from the courts or rules committees on Rule 10, revisiting this Rule seems appropriate.   Rule 10 is a primer for three main classes of representation in custody cases.   Two of these roles are more traditional attorney representation and those two roles may only be filled by […]

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Co-Parenting with the Bad Guy

March 8, 2013

“He’s horrible to me; why should I be nice?” “I have to respond to her accusations, because if I don’t, everyone will assume they’re true.” “She just gets me so worked up. When she starts screaming in front of the kids, I get so mad I can’t help myself.” Lots of sources try to offer […]

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Use and Misuse of the Parenting Coordinator – Part I

January 20, 2013

This is a slightly updated version of a post from October, 2011.   Most of the information about parenting coordination remains the same but it never hurts to refresh. Parenting Coordinators have different training, backgrounds, and styles. If you are involved in the choice of the PC (as opposed to simply having the judge choose […]

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Social Media and Your Divorce

January 19, 2013

Social media can be a weapon in a divorce or contested parenting time proceeding. Here’s some information about using social media if you’re involved in a court case for divorce or parenting time. Social media means a wide variety of things—Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Vimeo, blogging, Tumblr, Pinterest, etc. etc. For ease, I refer mostly to […]

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Child Tax Dependency Exemptions-You Almost Can’t Win With the IRS

January 4, 2013

We’ve seen the standard language in an Arizona Decree of Dissolution and/ or Property Settlement Agreement: “[Husband/ Wife] is awarded the tax dependency exemption for the minor child so long as [his/her] child support obligation is current not later than December 31 for the year in which the exemption is to be claimed. [Husband/ Wife] […]

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New Beginnings Program – A Program of Parenting Skills Training

December 28, 2012

The New Beginnings Program was developed by researchers at Arizona State University and will offer a program (consisting of either 10 or 2 weekly group meetings) to assist parents who are separated/ never married or divorced.   There are separate meetings for mothers and fathers, and it is not necessary that both parents to a […]

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For Better or For Worse Seminar January 10-11, 2013

December 28, 2012

It’s almost here again — the two-day AAML/ State Bar of Arizona advanced Arizona Family Law Institute,  including both the Thursday program and the traditional For Better or For Worse Friday program.    Here’s the program brochure   FBOFWSeminarBrochure2013. The Thursday program topics are: QDROs and military issues Tax filing issues in family cases JCA […]

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Settling the Christmas Access Dispute – a Video to Watch

December 24, 2012

I wish all my clients, counsel, and all parents involved in the family law system would take 6 minutes and watch this video, “Settling the Christmas Access Dispute”, about parental conflict during the holidays and how it affects the children. “Hey, it was always Dad (or Mom) that took the fight out of the holidays […]

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