Legal Question in Family Law in Arizona
My ex wife has had numerous issues. She has a domestic violence record along with a DUI and another recent DUI that got dismissed due to improper handling of the situation on the police's end. However, she now has no vehicle, no job and has agreed to give me full custody of our 5 year old son because she was caught leaving him home alone and says she isn't well. Mistake on my part, I didn't file a police report, so now she claims I can't use that against her in court. She signed the paperwork and we had it all notarized saying I have full custody and all the rights to make the decisions in my son's life, and she will not pay child support. She still wants to get him two days during the week, but since we agreed, she's already said she can't take him twice in a row due to either having a court date or no form of transportation. I have not turned in the paperwork yet, but my plan was to agree to this situation now, but once I have custody, do a modification and get an order for her to pay child support later. My girlfriend is pregnant and my son will be starting school this year, so we will need the help. I didn't want to go to court in fear she would get more time with my son that she doesn't deserve due to her history of bad judgment and child abandonment. Is my idea a good one, or is there any advice you have on what to do from here? I'm afraid, if we agree, the custody AND child support will be made the court order and I won't be able to change it later to request child support. Apparently her other ex tried doing the same thing I am with his daughter he shares with my ex and nothing changed. Please help!
2 Answers from Attorneys
Thank you for your inquiry. I invite you to come in for a free initial consultation with one of our attorneys, but in the meantime, I have a couple thoughts about your situation. First, child support is modifiable if there is a change in circumstances, so even if you file the new agreement now, that doesn't stop you from recalculating child support at some point in the future if something changes (e.g. the birth of your child). Another consideration is that if she is unemployed, the court may attribute her with minimum wage income, but the child support amount might not be significant anyway, so it may not be worth the risk of "losing" the parenting time agreement by trying to "protect" your child support rights.
If you call our office to schedule an appointment, we can arrange to review the agreement that the two of you signed to make sure it is something that the court can adopt, and provide you with some information about your options so you can decide your best course of action.
This is pretty serious. Sometimes when you try to do things yourself when handling a divorce and modification, you make things worse or more expensive than it has to because an attorney has to come behind you to undo all of the damage that was done because you aren't legally trained.. Your idea is not a good one. I would suggest that you file a petition to modify parenting plan now, try to get supervised visitation for her since she apparently is not capable at the moment of parenting without someone having an eye on her. The drug or alcohol issue is always a big concern for the courts. This is not something you should be doing without help. Why don't you give Stephanie Coulter of this office a call at 602 462 1004 and see if she can arrange a little time for you and I to chat about this by phone.
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