Many people have heard that Arizona is a “no fault” divorce state, but exactly what does\u00a0“no fault”\u00a0mean?\u00a0 This post explains no fault divorce in simple terms.\u00a0 The no fault concept has application in three aspects of Arizona divorce cases: 1) the dissolution of the marriage itself; 2) the resolution of the financial matters in the case; and 3) the resolution of child legal decision-making and parenting time issues, if any.<\/p>\n
1.\u00a0 Dissolution of Marriage<\/span>.<\/strong>\u00a0 At its most basic level, no fault divorce means that a married person does not have to prove her spouse has done something wrong–that her spouse is at fault–in order to qualify for a divorce.\u00a0 In most\u00a0Arizona marriages, if either<\/em> party for any reason believes the marriage is “irretrievably broken”, there are sufficient grounds for dissolving the marriage.\u00a0 A.R.S. 25-312.3.<\/p>\n A person does not have to prove that her spouse is having an affair, is abusive, or is an alcoholic to get a divorce.\u00a0 Not only is such proof not required, it is not allowed<\/em> in court as a basis for the divorce because such evidence\u00a0is not legally relevant to the judge’s decision to grant the divorce.\u00a0 Judges simply do not want to hear about why<\/em> the parties are getting divorced.\u00a0 They\u00a0only want to know whether at least one of the spouses believes the marriage is irretrievably broken.<\/p>\n 2.\u00a0 Resolution of Financial Matters<\/span>.\u00a0 <\/strong>The second area where the no fault concept comes into play is the resolution of the financial matters, such as deciding spousal maintenance, child support, and the division of assets and debts.\u00a0 Whether a married woman has had an affair will have no impact on the judge’s decision as to whether she receives spousal maintenance.\u00a0 None of the statutory factors used to determine entitlement to, the amount of, or duration of spousal maintenance has to do with the\u00a0bad actions of a person seeking spousal maintenance or the person who may be ordered to pay it.\u00a0 A.R.S. Sec. 25-319.<\/p>\n As for child support,\u00a0it is governed by the Arizona Child Support Guidelines.\u00a0 These Guidelines set up a formula for calculating child support that is based on the parents’ incomes, the time spent with the children, and other financial factors.\u00a0\u00a0The formula for calculating child support has nothing to do with the conduct of either parent.\u00a0 The concept of fault is legally irrelevant to the child support calculation.<\/p>\n Likewise, the division of assets between the spouses is not affected by the fault of either spouse.\u00a0 Arizona law specifically provides that the Court “shall . . . divide the community . . . property . . . equitably, . .\u00a0. without regard to marital misconduct.”<\/em>\u00a0 25-318.A (emphasis added).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0For example, a\u00a0wife\u00a0will not be able to get a greater share of the marital assets by proving that\u00a0her husband has had an affair.\u00a0 A husband will not be awarded a greater share of the assets by proving that his wife is an alcoholic and will likely spend all of the money she is awarded on booze.<\/p>\n Again, as noted above, because evidence of fault is not legally relevant to the resolution of the\u00a0financial issues in a divorce case, judges will not allow the evidence to be presented in court for these purposes.<\/p>\n 3.\u00a0 Resolution of Child Legal Decision-Making and Parenting Time Issues<\/span>.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0The third and final area where\u00a0no fault concepts\u00a0often apply is in\u00a0the court’s determination of child legal decision-making (formerly “legal custody”) and parenting time issues.\u00a0\u00a0For example, a mother won’t be awarded sole legal decision-making over her children and have them placed with her full-time just because she is able to prove the father is having an affair.\u00a0\u00a0Like it\u00a0or not, Arizona law\u00a0does not\u00a0equate adultery with bad parenting.<\/p>\n Some bad conduct is, however, relevant to the court’s\u00a0determination of legal decision-making and parenting time matters.\u00a0 For example, significant acts of domestic violence perpetrated by one parent against the other or the children will be considered by the court.\u00a0 Given\u00a0a sufficient finding of violence, a judge may award one parent sole legal decision-making or primary residential placement of the children. \u00a0Similarly, if a parent has an ongoing substance abuse problem, the court may restrict that parent’s rights to the children.<\/p>\n To sum up, in a divorce case involving minor children, certain significant and ongoing\u00a0bad actions by a parent may result in\u00a0a court’s restricting that parent’s rights to his children.\u00a0 As to the dissolution of the marriage itself and the resolution of financial matters, however, the “fault” of the parties is legally irrelevant in Arizona and will not affect the outcome of the case.\u00a0 Because the fault of the spouses is legally irrelevant to these decisions under Arizona law, Arizona is considered a “no fault” divorce state.<\/p>\n Copyright \u00a9 2016 by Scoresby Family Law \u2013 J. Kyle Scoresby, P.C. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Many people have heard that Arizona is a “no fault” divorce state, but exactly what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[109],"tags":[192,23,213,42,134,193,55,13,68,191],"class_list":["post-2618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-divorce-process","tag-affairs","tag-arizona-child-support-guidelines","tag-child-support","tag-dissolution-of-marriage","tag-division-of-assets-and-debts","tag-irretrievably-broken","tag-legal-decision-making","tag-no-fault-divorce","tag-parenting-time","tag-spousal-maintenance-alimony"],"yoast_head":"\n