In today’s society, blended families are the norm. In some families, children grow to be closer to their step-fathers than to their biological fathers. When a parent and a step-parent divorce, step-parents are able to seek visitation rights in most cases.
The law provides that a person who stands in loco parentis to a child may be awarded visitation rights if the visitation is in the child’s best interests and provided that one of the following is true:
1) One of the legal parents is deceased or has been missing at least three months.
2) The child’s legal parents are not married to each other at the time the petition is filed.
3) There is a pending proceeding for dissolution of marriage or for legal separation of the legal parents at the time the petition is filed.
A.R.S. Sec. 25-415 (C).
A person stands in loco parentis to a child if the person has been treated as a parent by the child and has formed a meaningful parental relationship with the child for a substantial period of time. A.R.S. Sec. 25-415 (G)(1).
The step-parent (or other in loco parentis person) files his petition for visitation in the same action in which a previous custody order has been entered regarding the child. The action in which the previous custody order was entered is the divorce or paternity case between the legal parents (usually the biological mother and father). A.R.S. Sec. 25-415 (F). In the step-parent visitation case, both of the legal parents are opposing parties, and the petition must be served on both legal parents. If there is no prior custody order, such as when the mother was never married to the father and paternity was never established, the step-father may file a new action against both the mother and the man believed to be the father.
Although step-parents may seek visitation rights under A.R.S. Sec. 25-415 under appropriate circumstances as outlined above, step-parents have no legal obligation to financially support their step-children, and they cannot be ordered to pay child support.
Copyright © 2011 by Scoresby Family Law – J. Kyle Scoresby, P.C. All rights reserved.