How do Arizona courts deal with legal decision making (custody) and parenting time (visitation) modification issues when one parent’s service in the United States armed forces necessitates the modification?  Generally, the courts may modify legal decision making and parenting time when to do so is in the children’s best interest.  The court must consider the terms of a military parent's family care plan when considering the child's best interest during that parent's military deployment.

 

If the children live primarily with the military parent, and that parent receives temporary duty, deployment, activation or mobilization orders that require that parent to move a substantial distance away, Arizona courts will not enter a final order modifying parental rights and parent-child contact until ninety days after the deployment ends, unless the military parent agrees to the modification.  This means that Arizona family courts will not modify a military parent’s rights and responsibilities to his or her children while that parent on deployment or temporary duty.

 

Furthermore, Arizona courts will not consider a military parent's absence caused by deployment or mobilization or the potential for future deployment or mobilization as the sole factor supporting modification.  Note, however, that Arizona courts may consider this as one factor, as long as it is not the only factor.

 

Arizona courts will, after a hearing, grant temporary orders modifying parental rights and responsibilities during the period of deployment or mobilization if the circumstances meet the following requirements: 1) the military parent has received orders that require him or her to temporarily leave; and 2) that parent’s deployment will have a material effect on his or her ability to parent the children.  For example, the court may enter temporary orders if a Marine Reservist received orders to Iraq for six months.  The court may also allow the military parent to present testimony and evidence electronically if the other side gets advance notice and the parent’s military service has a material effect on his or her ability to appear in court in person.  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 step-parent, 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 will not allow the delegation of parenting time to a person who would be subject to limitations on parenting time, such as supervised parenting time.   All temporary modification orders will include a specific transition schedule to facilitate a return to the pre-deployment order within ten days after the deployment ends, taking into consideration the child's best interests parents do not come to an agreement on their own, which is for what all parents should strive.

 

Military parents should know their rights and responsibilities.  Parents who serve their country should not have a disadvantage in family court due to their service.