Fathers’ Rights in Arizona

When parents separate or divorce, the father often worries about maintaining a close relationship and involvement with their children’s lives. Under Arizona law, fathers have the right to participate in their children’s lives, including making significant decisions about their children’s upbringing and having parenting time. However, fathers’ rights also come with responsibilities, including financially supporting their children into adulthood. If you’ve separated or divorced from your children’s mother, you deserve to know your rights as a father in Arizona.

Does a Father Have Rights Regarding His Child in Arizona?

Arizona law recognizes that children thrive when they have both parents involved in their lives. As a result, the law gives fathers the right to participate in their children’s upbringing. Fathers can petition the court for shared or sole legal and physical custody by demonstrating that a custody arrangement will serve their child’s best interests.

How Long Does a Father Have to Be Absent to Lose His Rights in Arizona?

Arizona law defines parental abandonment as the failure to provide reasonable support and maintain regular contact with a child, including providing normal supervision of the child. The law requires the court to find whether a parent has abandoned their child by making no or minimal efforts to support and communicate with their child.

Failure to maintain a normal parental relationship with a child without just cause for a period of six months is considered evidence of abandonment. A court may deem a father to have abandoned his child if he has not provided support and maintained contact with the child for at least six months, potentially jeopardizing the father’s parental rights.

Does an Unmarried Father Have Rights in Arizona?

A father who did not marry his child’s mother may have limited rights to participate in their child’s life and upbringing without taking certain steps. First, an unmarried father may have to establish paternity for the child. Arizona law presumes an unmarried father’s paternity if:

• Genetic testing affirms a 95 percent probability of paternity
• Both the father and mother sign the child’s birth certificate
• Both parents sign a witnessed or notarized statement acknowledging paternity

Once an unmarried father establishes his paternity, he gains some parental rights, including access to the child’s medical and educational records. Although the mother has sole authority to determine the father’s physical access to the child, she cannot move out of Arizona without the father’s permission or court approval.

An unmarried father can gain full parental rights by obtaining a custody order from the court. The court can grant the father shared legal custody, which gives the father the right to participate in decisions for his child’s upbringing, including medical, educational, and religious matters. The court can also grant shared physical custody and establish a parenting schedule for the father to have visitation or overnight custody.

What Is the “Best Interests of the Child Standard” in Arizona?

In Arizona, courts decide child custody issues by determining whether a custody arrangement serves the child’s best interests. State law lists certain factors courts should consider when determining a child’s best interest, including:

• The relationship between the parent and child
• How the child interacts with each parent and any other members of the parent’s household
• How well the child has adjusted to their home, school, or community
• The physical and mental health of the child and the parents
• Which parent will more likely let the child have frequent and liberal contact with their other parent
• Whether a parent had intentionally misled the court to influence custody
• Whether either parent has a history of domestic violence or child abuse
• Whether one parent used coercion or threats to get the other parent to agree to a parenting plan
• Whether either parent had falsely reported child abuse or neglect
• Whether a parent complied with court-ordered parenting education courses
• The child’s preferences if the court finds the child old and mature enough to express a reasoned preference

Is It Possible for a Father to Get Full Custody in Arizona?

Arizona takes a gender-neutral approach to child custody determinations, which means courts must not prefer one parent over the other based on gender. Although some fathers assume that courts will always grant mothers some degree of custody, fathers can petition for and receive sole custody of their children if they can show that it will serve their child’s best interests. For example, a court may grant a father sole custody if the child’s mother has an unsafe or unstable home environment, has a history of domestic violence or child abuse, or has tried to alienate the child from their father.

However, because Arizona public policy favors granting parents shared custody whenever possible, courts only order sole custody in limited circumstances.

Do Fathers Have a Right to Seek Child Support in Arizona?

While many people associate child support with mothers, fathers can petition the court to impose a child support obligation on their child’s mother. Fathers can receive child support if the custody order has named them the primary custodial parent or parent of primary residence. Courts may designate the parent the child spends the majority of overnights with as the primary custodial parent.

Since the primary custodial parent may bear most of the cost of the child’s upbringing, including housing, food, clothing, and healthcare, that parent can seek a child support order to have the other parent bear their fair share of the child’s expenses. Arizona courts use the state’s child support guidelines to calculate a support amount based on the parents’ respective incomes or earning capacities and the time the child spends with each parent.

Our Arizona Family Law Attorneys Are Ready to Help

If you’ve found yourself in a child custody dispute in Arizona, get the legal help you need to protect your rights as a father. Contact the family law attorneys at Mushkatel, Gobbato, & Kile, P.L.L.C. today for an initial consultation to discuss your options for preserving your parental rights and relationship with your children.

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