Legal Question in Family Law in Arizona
I am in Pima county Arizona. I have an 11 year old daughter whos father has refused to be a part of her life. She has seen him aprox 6 times throughtout her whole life and it was always I who initiated it. The last time he saw her was a year ago (the first part of May)when he attended her 10h birthday party I invited him to. A month later I suggested she call him for his birthday (June 2nd) when she got off the phone she was crying and pleaded with me not to make her talk to him anymore, I agreed. The following month (July) I filed for modification for child support and it was finalized in Feb of this year. The father quit his job he had been working at for almost 10 years (the company is owned by his father) then a couple days ago I got a call from him telling me that he is filing for visitation (that is the basic of the conversation) I offered to meet him at a park so he could visit her and he declined saying he doesn't feel I need to be there to supervise and he would call the next day. He has not called and just today I recieved the notice from the post office he sent me something via cert mail. Does my daughter have a say to what she wants? Can he get visitation if it is completely against her wishes? One last note: I had started to file for the modification about 4 years ago originally, and within a month he had contacted me letting me know he was filing for visitation. I became ill and never completed the modification process and I did not hear from him again about visitation (or anything else) untill the birthday party last May. His support changed alot from 297 to 721 and I feel he knows that getting visitation is the only way he can lower that.
1 Answer from Attorneys
A Judge is required to consider the desires of the minor child. However, her wishes are only one factor of many. I would expect a Judge to want to "re-introduce" father and child through a graduated parenting time plan: thus perhaps supervised at first, then working his way up to normall access. You could also ask for "therapeutic reunification" between daughter and Father.
We can certainly help you consider and then pursue your options in addressing hgis requests for access.
One of our attorneys can explain the issues and procedures better in person. As you can imagine, there is too much to cover via email. We offer free 1/2 hour consultations, in which we can discuss your matter in detail.
Please call us directly to discuss the specifics of your matter, or contact my assistant Gloria or my paralegal Jennifer to schedule your free 1/2 hour consultation
/s/ Rich J. Peters
RJ PETERS & ASSOC., P.C.
1422 North 2nd Street, Suite 100
Phoenix, Arizona 85004
602-254-7251
facsimile 602-254-1229
see our website at www.familylawaz.com
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