Legal Question in Family Law in Arizona
I have submitted a Petition for Parent-time and Child Support Modification to the court and should be receiving an Order to Appear with a hearing date anytime now. I saw that last week, the respondent had sent a wage/benefits inquiry to my place of employment. I can only assume that he is going to try to file his own petition, and he will be requesting all of vacation, breaks and holiday time. (He is trying to make 182 days exactly so he can say that we have the child 50/50, this will get him out of child support).
The fact of the matter is, I have the child 5 days a week, 10 months out of the year because of school and sports committments. Then in summer once sports are done we reverse, where he has him during the week and I have him on weekends. It is not chronologically possible to split the year evenly
My question is, what happens when the respondent in the case files their own petition? What happens then?
Also, will the judge see, that he is trying to claim 50/50 time in order to get out of paying child support? Am I entitled to half of vacations, breaks and holidays?
3 Answers from Attorneys
Usually, when both parents live in relatively near proximity (e.g. not in different states), the court will allot each parent time for vacation and will somehow divide breaks and holidays between the parents.
If he files his own petition rather than including his requests in a response to your petition, it would make most sense for the court to consolidate the petitions and hear everything at the same time.
The Court does its best to guard against parents trying to use the number of parenting time days to get out of paying child support or reduce their child support. The two are supposed to be totally separate issues, although they are tied together in the child support formula.
In fact, some Court forms state that a parent is not supposed to try to leverage parenting time to get downward adjustment of their child support costs.
I would of course object if that appears to be what he is doing.
Best of luck, and let me know if there is anything else I can do to help.
The court will simply consolidate both petitions.
The court will base child support based on the real schedule. So the more time he actually spends, he does get credit. The trick will be to prove the reality of the schedule.
We can certainly help you consider and then pursue your options. This is obviously a very important matter, and you should not go in alone.
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 Gina or my paralegal Jennifer to schedule your free 1/2 hour consultation.
/s/ Rich J. Peters
R.J. 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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