{"id":1226,"date":"2012-03-09T01:15:38","date_gmt":"2012-03-09T01:15:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/?p=1226"},"modified":"2019-11-23T22:26:41","modified_gmt":"2019-11-24T05:26:41","slug":"filing-the-petition-for-dissolution-of-marriage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/09\/filing-the-petition-for-dissolution-of-marriage\/","title":{"rendered":"Filing the Petition for Dissolution of Marriage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>To begin a divorce case, the party seeking the divorce must file certain papers with the court.\u00a0 The most important is called a Petition for Dissolution of Marriage (&#8220;Petition&#8221;).\u00a0 This Petition is the document that opens the\u00a0case and\u00a0informs the court and the opposing party that the filing party, the <em>petitioner<\/em>, is seeking a divorce.\u00a0\u00a0 The basic requirements of the Petition are set forth in A.R.S. Section 25-311 &#8211; 312, 314, and Rules 23-31 of the Arizona Rules of Family Law Procedure (&#8220;ARFLP&#8221;).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In short, the\u00a0 Petition must\u00a0provide basic information about the parties (<em>See <\/em>A.R.S. Sec. 25-314),\u00a0claim that the marriage is irretrievably broken, that the court&#8217;s free marriage counseling services would not help save the marriage, and that one of the parties resided in Arizona for ninety days prior to the filing.\u00a0 The Petition must also include a short and simple statement of the relief the petitioner is requesting.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As for the relief the petitioner is requesting, the Petition is NOT required to state everything the petitioner wants with specificity.\u00a0 For example, the petitioner <em>may<\/em> specifically\u00a0list in the Petition each item of property she is requesting, but it is also sufficient to simply state that the petitioner seeks &#8220;a fair and equitable division of the community assets and debts.&#8221;\u00a0 Similarly, the Petition <em>may<\/em> specifically state the parenting time schedule requested, including pick up and drop off times and specific holidays, but it is also sufficient\u00a0for the\u00a0Petition\u00a0to simply state that petitioner seeks &#8220;a parenting time schedule in the children&#8217;s best interests as determined by the court.&#8221;\u00a0\u00a0 The Petition <em>may<\/em> request a specific dollar amount of spousal maintenance for a specific period of time, but it is also sufficient for the Petition to simply state that the petitioner &#8220;seeks spousal maintenance in an amount and duration to be determined by the court.&#8221;\u00a0 A simple statement providing <em>notice<\/em> of the claims the petitioner is making will do.\u00a0 The Petition must be signed by the petitioner and notarized.<\/p>\n<p>Along with the Petition for Dissolution of Marriage, several additional documents must be filed to open the case, including a cover sheet, summons, preliminary injunction, notice of right to convert health insurance, and notice regarding creditors.\u00a0 These documents are standard forms and are\u00a0the same in every case. \u00a0The summons notifies the opposing party, the <em>respondent<\/em>, that he has a deadline of\u00a0twenty days in which to file a response to the Petition and the consequences that may result from failing to file a response.\u00a0 The preliminary injunction notifies each party of actions which are prohibited while the case is pending, such as cancelling insurance, selling property, and \u00a0removing children from the state absent an agreement or court order.\u00a0 The notice of right to convert health insurance notifies the parties that if one party is covered under the other&#8217;s health insurance, she may have a right to continue the health insurance coverage for a period of time under COBRA.\u00a0 The notice regarding creditors notifies the parties of certain rights with respect to debts and creditors, including the right to obtain a copy of the other party&#8217;s credit report.<\/p>\n<p>When the Petition and all accompanying documents are ready, the petitioner makes two copies (one for herself and one for the respondent) and then files the originals at the Superior Court filing counter along with the required filing fee (presently $321 in Maricopa County).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The next step is getting the papers served on the respondent, which\u00a0will be my topic for next week&#8217;s post.\u00a0 Stay tuned!<\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2012 by Scoresby Family Law \u2013 J. Kyle Scoresby, P.C. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To begin a divorce case, the party seeking the divorce must file certain papers with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[109],"tags":[180,73,245],"class_list":["post-1226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-divorce-process","tag-divorce-case","tag-preliminary-injunction","tag-summons"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Filing the Petition for Dissolution of Marriage - Arizona Divorce &amp; Family Law Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/scoresbyfamilylaw.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/09\/filing-the-petition-for-dissolution-of-marriage\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Filing the Petition for Dissolution of Marriage - Arizona Divorce &amp; 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