Parenting Time

Parenting time is also commonly referred to as visitation. A child needs to continue to have a meaningful relationship with both parents. Arizona courts will order parenting time to ensure that a child has regular contact with both parents. However, parenting time may be curtailed or even removed. This usually only occurs if the court finds that a child is at risk from physical, mental or emotional harm resulting from contact with a parent. A Phoenix parenting time lawyer understands all of the different factors that go into a parenting time decision and can help you during a divorce.

Key Factors

Arizona uses Arizona Revised Statute 25-403 when determining parenting time based on the best interests of the child. The most common factors looked at are availability, geographical location and support of the parent’s by others. The court will examine the availability and work schedule of both parents when determining parenting time orders. Does each parent have the time available to insure that the child will be adequately supervised and receive meaningful interaction with the parent. The second factor is the geographical distance between the two homes, especially with children that are of school age. If there is a significant distance of travel involved, and the child is attending school, then one parent is usually awarded the majority of parenting time with the other parent seeing the child every other weekend. The final factor is the amount of support a parent receives from employers, family and child care professionals.

Parenting Time Modification

If you need to make changes to your parenting time, you can contact a reliable and experienced Phoenix parenting time lawyer to help you with this. There are many reasons why parenting time may have to be modified, these can include:

  • A parent, who was earlier too busy to spend extensive parenting time, is now able to spend more time at home because of job changes;
  • A job change for one of the parents that requires him/her to be away from home for longer periods of time;
  • The custodial parent is moving to another state;
  • The fitness of the parent because of criminal activity, child abuse or drug use.
  • Parenting time may be modified based upon the agreement of the parents.

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