Many people seek answers to their family law questions on the internet.  My website has a lot of information and answers to peoples' questions.  I have also answered a lot of actual questions from people on Avvo.com.  A good example of this family law Q & A is my last answer:

I have had my son since he was three weeks old, and now that he is 1 year and 8 months his mother wants to share custody.

What can I do? She works 10 hour days and leaves him with whoever will watch him.

Thomas’s Answer

• on Mar 11, 2014

If there is no order and you were never married to the mother, she has the right to take your son at any time because children born out of wedlock in Arizona are in the sole care and custody of the mother until a court makes an order to the contrary. Therefore, if this is the case you should probably act quickly and file to establish paternity, legal decision making and parenting time.

If there is a court, order, you have to abide by the court order. Either one of you can file to modify the court order, assuming that it has been long enough since the court entered the order.

If you are married and there is not court order, then neither one of you has a superior right to the other.

To see all of my answers on Avvo.com, go here: https://www.avvo.com/attorneys/85013-az-thomas-morton-419854/answers.html

You can also browse answers from many other attorneys.

Arizona has no statute of limitation on collection of child support arrears, but it does have a statute of limitation on collecting spousal maintenance ("alimony") arrears.  The statute of limitation is three years past the termination date for the spousal maintenance obligation.

For example, if the court ordered Husband to pay Wife spousal maintenance through June, 2015, the deadline to file any petition to collect any arrears would be June 30, 2018.  This does not mean that the statute of limitation will bar collection of payments that are more than three years overdue.  For example, if the court ordered Husband to pay spousal maintenance through June, 2012, and Husband missed a payment in June, 2005, and Wife filed her petition to enforce spousal maintenance on June 1, 2013, then Wife’s petition is timely.

This means that people can wait to enforce spousal maintenance, but they cannot wait forever, like they can with child support.  However, as a practical matter, it does not make sense to wait to enforce either spousal maintenance or child support until the other party owes tens of thousands of dollars.  The larger the amount of arrears, the more difficult collecting the entire amount becomes.  A better course of action is to petition the court to enforce support orders before the amount of arrears grows too much, so that the other party begins to make regular, consistent payments.

The Arizona Court of Appeals has recently issued some decisions regarding a few miscellaneous child support issues.  These cases include a parent attempting to recover an overpayment of child support, a court that modified child support after it modified parenting time even though neither party asked the court to modify child support, and a parent who worked part time at an hourly rate who had full-time income attributed to her at the same hourly rate as her part-time income.

In the first case, the children’s father overpaid child support because the mother started receiving SSI on behalf of one child.  Meanwhile, the oldest child emancipated.  The father waited one year to terminate child support.  The father argued that his child support obligation should end because one child had emancipated and the other child received SSI.  He also argued that the mother should pay back the overpayment caused by her receipt of SSI.  The court denied the request for reimbursement because the father had waited so long to terminate child support, it was within the court’s discretion to not order reimbursement, and Arizona law precludes a retroactive reimbursement (meaning that an order for reimbursement under these circumstances would amount to a retroactive child support modification, which Arizona law does not allow).

In the second case, the mother asked the court to modify joint legal decision making regarding school choice.  The father filed a counter-petition seeking equal parenting time.  Neither parent asked the court to modify child support.  The trial court granted the father’s request for equal parenting time and modified child support accordingly.  The mother appealed.  The Court of Appeals ruled that Arizona law requires the Family Court to enter a child support order pursuant to the Arizona Child Support Guidelines every time it enters a parenting time order.  Therefore, every time a court modifies parenting time, the court must also address child support, even when neither party has asked the court to do so.  This reminds me of a case I handled several years ago.  In that case, the opposing party had asked to modify parenting time to decrease my client’s time with the child.  Her petition backfired because the court ended up increasing my client’s parenting time.  The judge then proceeded to modify child support.  When the opposing party objected that she had not asked for a child support modification, the judge said that modification of parenting time and modification of child support go together, like peanut butter and jelly, ham and cheese, and chips and dip.

In the third case, the mother, whom the court had ordered to pay child support, lost her job due to "performance issues" in 2007 and remained unemployed until 2013.  In 2013, she began to work part-time for $11.60 per hour.  In calculating child support, the trial court used $11.60 per hour and 40 hours per week for the mother’s income.  The Court of Appeals ruled that the trial court had implicitly found that the mother had not provided any reasonable basis for not having full-time employment.  The only evidence that she had offered was her statements, which the trial court could accept or reject.

As you can see, not every issue in a child support matter is so easy to resolve.

Although adultery can be emotionally devastating, it is usually not relevant to divorce in Arizona.  Arizona is a no-fault divorce state, which means couples can get a divorce without one of them being at fault.  It also means that the court will divide the couple’s property and debt, determine child custody and visitation, and determine child support and spousal maintenance without regard to marital misconduct.

Although adultery is not an issue in itself and is not directly relevant to the divorce, it may be relevant to certain narrow issues.  For example, if one spouse incurs tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt having an affair, the other spouse can argue that the resulting debt is community waste which did not benefit the marital community and the court should declare the debt to be the other spouse’s separate debt.

Part of the benefit of hiring an attorney for your divorce is having someone who is not emotionally devastated or angry about your divorce and who can analyze the legal issues and give you good legal advice.

Things to think about when contemplating divorce.

1.  Emotional costs. Money and time are not the only costs of a divorce. Sometimes the emotional costs are more than the monetary costs.  Emotional costs include changing relationships with your family and children.  Do you need a divorce in order to be well mentally and emotionally?

2. Strategy. Timing can be important.  Is your income is down, are your assets are devalued, or has your retirement lost value? If you are the main earner in the marriage, is it a good time to calculate spousal maintenance or divide your assets?  Is it possible that the court may require you to provide support based on an income that you no longer earn?

3.  Is your spouse contemplating a change? If your spouse is considering a major change, such as a move out of state, loss of a job, starting a new career, or some other disruption, you may want to file now before you and your spouse establish a new norm, such as your children living and going to school in another state.

4. Time.  Consider the time that a divorce will cost you.  Is it worth it?  How long will this bad economy last?  It has already lasted seven years.  How long until you retire?  How long until your children are grown?  How long will it take to establish your career or for your spouse to establish a career?

5. Your children and step-children. If you have children, sometimes being practical wins out over everything else.   How will your divorce affect your children?  How will co-parenting work logistically? Who will pay for what when it comes to the children’s expenses?  Who will be responsible for what?  How will you and the other parent behave so as to not permanently scar your children?  Have realistic plans and agreeable solutions to potential problems. Thinking things through in advance will take off some of the pressure during the divorce. Financial aspects of divorce sometimes seem less difficult if the child-related issues can be resolved quickly and amicably.

There may be any number of additional things to contemplate.  The answer is not the same for everyone.