Arizona family law
The platform SHOWS Arizona family law, the process, and the official self-service forms that exist; a licensed Arizona attorney (or the party alone) makes every judgment — what to seek, what serves a child's best interests, what to file. The software never drafts a family petition or parenting plan, never tells you what legal decision-making to pursue, and never predicts what a court will do.
- • TrialVector is software, not a lawyer and not a law firm, and is not a substitute for the advice of an attorney.
- • Legal decision-making, parenting time, support, maintenance, and property decisions turn on best-interests and equitable analyses that are legal judgments, not form fills.
- • This lane shows the law and the process. It does not draft your petition, tell you what to seek, or predict a result.
- • No attorney–client relationship is formed by using this tool.
- • Orders of protection are a SAFETY lane — emergency resources first, AZPOINT (the judiciary's own portal) prepares the petition, and the platform never drafts against a protective order.
- • Document preparation for another person is a certified activity in Arizona (Rule 31.3; ACJA § 7-208) — the family lane routes drafting; it does not perform it.
Dissolution — the findings the court must make
No-fault at the core: the court enters the decree on finding the marriage IRRETRIEVABLY BROKEN, with ninety days' Arizona domicile (or military presence) before filing — and covenant marriages carry their own separate grounds list.
The sixty-day cooling clock
The court cannot hold the dissolution or legal-separation trial — or enter the decree on affidavit — until SIXTY DAYS after service or acceptance of process. The petition starts a clock nothing can shortcut.
Community property — Arizona's baseline
Arizona is a COMMUNITY-PROPERTY state: property acquired by either spouse during the marriage is community property, with the statute's own exceptions (gift, devise, descent — and property acquired after service of a petition that ends in a decree). The inverse of the equitable-distribution states.
Division at dissolution — equitably, not necessarily in kind
Each spouse keeps sole-and-separate property; the community is divided 'equitably, though not necessarily in kind' — classification and division are judgment through and through, and the statute's own machinery covers debts, creditors, and contempt.
Legal decision-making — Arizona renamed custody
The statute's heading is the doctrine: 'Legal decision-making; best interests of child.' The court determines legal decision-making and parenting time by the best-interests factors — the weighing that is the definition of legal judgment, routed.
Child support — the guidelines machine
Support runs on the statewide guidelines, without regard to marital misconduct — and when the court first orders support, the guidelines apply RETROACTIVELY to the filing date. The worksheet is arithmetic; deviations are court decisions.
Spousal maintenance — the eligibility gates and the guidelines
Maintenance rides § 25-319's eligibility findings (insufficient property, inadequate earning ability, the statute's own list) and its computation framework — a weighing exercise, routed.
Covenant marriage — the Arizona fork
Arizona is one of the few covenant-marriage states: spouses may declare a covenant marriage on the license itself, and that choice changes the dissolution grounds later (§ 25-312's covenant clause). The declaration's solemn text is in the statute verbatim.
Orders of protection — the safety lane, stated honestly
Orders of protection are governed by A.R.S. § 13-3602 — a Title 13 (criminal) section this corpus has NOT loaded. The lane does not paraphrase unloaded law: AZPOINT (azpoint.azcourts.gov), the judiciary's own statewide portal, prepares protective-order petitions for any Arizona court, and emergency resources come first.
Every family topic above links to the verbatim statute and, where one exists, the official self-service form family (the judiciary's own catalog; AZPOINT for orders of protection). Drafting, strategy, and what to ask for are routed to a licensed Arizona attorney — that routing is the product, not a limitation of it.