Legal Question in Family Law in Arizona

Re: child custody

Get copies of all court orders from the clerk; to be sure you have the actual copies. Get copies of any court minute entries from the clerk for any determination hearings. Review these documents carefully. Normally, the primary custodial parent is identified by their parental role (Mother/Father) or by their designation in the court pleadings (Petitioner/Respondent). Read the documents closely and identify what was wrong. If you or the father had attorney�s you should contact them to get the correction done. If not, you might want to consider hiring an attorney to help advocate for you in court and filing paperwork. I work in southern Arizona, not Maricopa County, but I would be willing to review all the paperwork with you and try to sort it out. There would be a fee for my time.

You can file a Motion to Clarify on your own. Sample pleading forms, although not specific to your question, are available online. See http://supreme.state.az.us/selfserv. Use the same names and order as in your other motions. In the pleadings, you should spoon feed the Judge, identify the parties & the children, set out the dates of hearings and orders. It doesn�t matter if the custody or the child support order is incorrect, the same procedure would apply. Quote the incorrect language and state what the order should say. You will need to file this with the Court who entered the order. A copy of your motion will need to be sent to the Father. You could, at the same time, request an Expedited Hearing to Clarify and set out your concerns about the Father. Your need to child support is another reason for the court to address this matter quickly. Good Luck.