Legal Question in Family Law in Arizona

You are obligated to comply with the court orders; however, you can ask the court to modify the orders to require supervision (and some sort of evaluation for Mother) if there has been some change in circumstances that you can articulate to the judge. Further, if you believe your child may be in imminent danger of some sort of irreparable harm or injury, you may be able to request those new orders on an "emergency" basis. If you are considering doing this, you should act sooner rather than later; if you wait to file an "emergency" action, then the court may believe that it is not a high priority to you. The forms to file the action are available at the Maricopa County Superior Court website (www.superiorcourt.maricopa.gov, self-service center, forms, family law forms), but it is a fairly complicated process, so you should consult with an attorney as well.

This situation should be taken very seriously. She may in fact be a severe danger not only to herself but to others. It is very worrisome that she has endangered your son and also an animal in the household - this is a sign of someone who is in extreme mental distress and if they are abusive to animals they likely will become abusive to humans or already are. Take immediate action to remedy things. Ask the court for an emergency modification of the child custody/visitation involving her, and see if there is any way that you can get her some mental health assistance. She may be resistant, but if you explain it will help ensure she can keep seeing her son, keep her pet, etc., she may come around. Best of luck!

As a follow up to what both of the previous lawyers said, I would strongly suggest you take action by filing an emergency order to have supervised or even no parenting time at this point. If you can show what you state in your question, the court is likely to grant it. I believe that having a lawyer is more helpful sometimes but with those facts, assuming you can prove them in some form, you should be able to accomplish it without a lawyer. You will likely want someone to assist you with any hearing you might have.

Good luck

Regards

Ronee Korbin Steiner

You can, and should, file a Petition for Emergency Modification, and perhaps an Order of Protection.

We can certainly help.

We have three attorneys. We charge from $220 per hour to $250 per hour. Our retainers can run as low as $500 for demand letters/phone calls, $1200 plus costs for uncontested matters, or from $2,000 to $4,000 for most contested matters.

We also can structure assisatnce to help you represent yourself.

Please remember that a retainer is just a prepayment of time, and not an estimate as to the total costs of the matter. If I finish within the retainer, than I refund any unearned amounts.

One of our attorneys can explain the issues and procedures better in person. As you can imagine, there is too much to cover via e'mail. 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

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