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HB2995 - 572R - H Ver
House Engrossed
domestic relations;
domestic violence
State of Arizona
House of Representatives
Fifty-seventh Legislature
Second Regular Session
2026
HOUSE BILL 2995
AN
ACT
amending sections 25-403.03, 25-404
and 25-411, arizona revised statutes; relating to legal decision-making
and parenting time.
(TEXT OF BILL BEGINS ON NEXT PAGE)
Be it
enacted by the Legislature of the State of Arizona:
Section 1. Section 25-403.03, Arizona Revised
Statutes, is amended to read:
START_STATUTE
25-403.03.
Domestic violence and child abuse; court considerations;
definitions
A. Notwithstanding subsection D of
this section, joint legal decision-making shall not be awarded if the
court makes a finding of the existence of significant domestic violence
pursuant to section 13-3601 or if the court finds by a preponderance of
the evidence that there has been a significant history of domestic violence.
B. The court shall consider evidence
of domestic violence as being contrary to the best interests of the child.� The
court shall consider the safety and well-being of the child and of the
victim of the act of domestic violence to be of primary
importance. The court shall consider a perpetrator's history of
causing or threatening to cause physical harm to another person.
C. To determine if a person has
committed an act of domestic violence the court, subject to the rules of
evidence, shall consider all relevant factors including the following:
1. Findings from another court of
competent jurisdiction.
2. Police reports.
3. Medical reports.
4. Records of the department of child
safety.
5. Domestic violence shelter records.
6. School records.
7. Witness testimony.
D. If the court determines that a
parent who is seeking sole or joint legal decision-making has committed an act
of domestic violence against the other parent, there is a rebuttable
presumption that an award of sole or joint legal decision-making to the parent
who committed the act of domestic violence is contrary to the child's best
interests.� This presumption does not apply if both parents have committed an
act of domestic violence.� For the purposes of this subsection, a person
commits an act of domestic violence if that person does any of the following:
1. Intentionally, knowingly or
recklessly causes or attempts to cause sexual assault or serious physical
injury.
2. Places a person in reasonable
apprehension of imminent serious physical injury to any person.
3. Engages in a pattern of behavior
for which a court may issue an ex parte order to protect the other parent who
is seeking child custody or to protect the child and the child's siblings.�
E. To determine if the parent has
rebutted the presumption the court shall consider all of the following:
1. Whether the parent has demonstrated
that being awarded sole or joint legal decision-making or substantially equal
parenting time is in the child's best interests.
2. Whether the parent has successfully
completed a batterer's prevention program.
3. Whether the parent has successfully
completed a program of alcohol or drug abuse counseling, if the court
determines that counseling is appropriate.
4. Whether the parent has successfully
completed a parenting class, if the court determines that a parenting class is
appropriate.
5. If the parent is on probation,
parole or community supervision, whether the parent is restrained by a
protective order that was granted after a hearing.
6. Whether the parent has committed
any further acts of domestic violence.
F. If the court finds that a parent
has committed an act of domestic violence, that parent has the burden of
proving to the court's satisfaction that parenting time will not endanger the
child or significantly impair the child's emotional development. If
the parent meets this burden to the court's satisfaction, the court shall place
conditions on parenting time that best protect the child and the other parent
from further harm. The court may:
1. Order that an exchange of the child
must occur in a protected setting as specified by the court.
2. Order that an agency specified by
the court must supervise parenting time. If the court allows a
family or household member to supervise parenting time, the court shall
establish conditions that this person must follow during parenting time.
3. Order the parent who committed the
act of domestic violence to attend and complete, to the court's satisfaction, a
program of intervention for perpetrators of domestic violence and any other
counseling the court orders.
4. Order the parent who committed the
act of domestic violence to abstain from possessing or consuming alcohol or
controlled substances during parenting time and for twenty-four hours
before parenting time.
5. Order the parent who committed the
act of domestic violence to pay a fee for the costs of supervised parenting
time.
6. Prohibit overnight parenting time.
7. Require a bond from the parent who
committed the act of domestic violence for the child's safe return.
8. Order that the address of the child
and the other parent remain confidential.
9. Impose any other condition that the
court determines is necessary to protect the child, the other parent and any
other family or household member.
G. The court shall not order joint
counseling between a victim and the perpetrator of domestic
violence. The court may provide a victim with written information
about available community resources related to domestic violence.
A. In any legal decision-making or
parenting time matter, The court shall consider domestic violence as contrary
to the best interests of the child and shall assign primary importance to the
safety and well-being of both the child and domestic violence victim.� If
an express or implied conflict arises between the requirements of this section
and a competing presumption, mandate or public policy in this title, the
provisions of this section take priority.
B. In any legal decision-making or
parenting time matter, The court shall make specific and detailed findings on
the record about each factor that is required by this section. The court shall
explain in detail why the court's findings regarding domestic violence serve
the child's best interests, including the presumption prescribed in subsection
F of this section and any rebuttal to the presumption that is offered pursuant
to subsection G of this section. On appeal, the legal sufficiency of each
finding and explanation shall be reviewed de novo. The court's findings must
address all of the following:
1. Coercive control.
2. Evidence that may support a
domestic violence claim.
3. The impact, severity and
circumstances of an act or acts of domestic violence that have occurred.
4. The mandatory presumption against
awarding legal decision-making or parenting time to a parent who has committed
an act or acts of domestic violence.
5. Whether a parent who has committed
an act or acts of domestic violence rebutted the mandatory presumption under
subsection F of this section.
C. A Claim of an act or acts of
domestic violence shall be established by a preponderance of the
evidence. corroboration from exhibits or witness testimony is not
required. Subject to the evidentiary standard applied to that proceeding
pursuant to the arizona rules of family law procedure, the court shall consider
all of the following:
1. Factual determinations of an act
or acts of domestic violence from a court of competent jurisdiction.
2. Evidence that is collected and
reports THAT are prepared by a law enforcement agency, the department of child
safety and any other government agency.
3. The alleged victim's medical or
behavioral health records, if the victim waives the associated privilege or
other right to confidentiality.
4. Records from a shelter for victims
of domestic violence as defined in section 36-3001.
5. Educational and school records.
6. A collateral act or acts of
domestic violence against any person by the parent who is the subject of the
allegation of committing an act or acts of domestic violence.
7. Witness testimony.
D. If the court determines that a
parent committed an act or acts of domestic violence, the court shall consider
and weigh all of the following nonexclusive factors, and any other relevant
considerations, when entering an award of legal decision-making, a parenting
time schedule and other features of the parenting plan required by section
25-403.02.� The court shall determine whether the act or acts of domestic
violence meet any of the following:
1. Risked or inflicted physical
injury or emotional trauma on the other parent or child.
2. Involved the threat or use of a
firearm or other dangerous weapon.
3. Involved the threat or use of
strangulation as described in section 13-1204, subsection B, paragraph 1.
4. Involved multiple forms of
coercive control, including whether physical violence, no matter how
infrequent, was used to intensify the impact of other forms of coercive
control.
5. Compromised the victim's
education, employment or career goals.
6. Significantly damaged the victim's
reputation or relationships with family, friends or others.
7. Created a question as to whether
the parent who committed the act or acts of domestic violence can serve as a
suitable role model for the child, including with respect to parenting time.
8. Revealed a disdain for the other
parent or child that would complicate or prevent effective legal
decision-making.
9. Are denied, deflected or minimized
during treatment, forensic assessment, formal discovery or courtroom
proceedings by the parent who committed the act or acts of domestic violence.
10. Occurred over a period of time
and with sufficient severity or frequency that the passage of time or
remoteness of an earlier act or acts of domestic violence constitute an
aggravating and not a mitigating factor.
E. When weighing evidence of a
collateral act or acts of domestic violence, the court may consider the passage
of time or prior judicial review.� The court MAY not refuse evidence of a
collateral act or acts of domestic violence on the grounds that the alleged act
or acts of domestic violence or A related legal claim has been decided,
predates the last decree or could have been litigated at another time or
place.� The court shall evaluate whether evidence of a collateral act or acts
of domestic violence doES any of the following:
1. Establishes recurring behavior by
the parent alleged to have committed an act or acts of domestic violence,
including coercive control.
2. Proves the motive, opportunity,
intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity or absence of mistake or
accident by the parent alleged to have committed an act or acts of domestic
violence.
3. Explains an otherwise excessive
response by the alleged victim to a more recent event as well as other reactive
or protective behavior by the alleged victim.
f. If the court determines that a
parent committed an act or acts of domestic violence, there is a mandatory
rebuttable presumption that an award of legal decision-making or parenting time
to the parent who committed the act or acts of domestic violence is contrary to
the child's best interests.� the court MAY not require the victim or child to
prove that shared legal decision-making or parenting time would harm the child.
A rebuttable presumption DOES NOT arise IF mutual acts of domestic violence
occurred.� The court may not describe an act or acts of domestic violence as
mutual or enter a legal decision-making or parenting time order that treats
domestic VIOLENCE as mutual, unless the evidence establishes that both parents
had the same motive for their actions, lacked justification to similar degrees
and inflicted comparable harm.
G. To determine whether the parent
who committed an act or acts of domestic violence has rebutted the mandatory
presumption prescribed in subsection f of the section, the court shall do all
of the following:
1. Review the court's findings
prescribed by subsection d of this section and apply the court's findings to
the rebuttal determination.
2. Consider a collateral act or acts
of domestic violence by the parent against anyone.
3. Not treat any of the following
considerations as mitigation or relevant to the rebuttal of the mandatory
presumption:
(
a
) The child's
absence from the location where the act or acts of domestic violence occurred.
(
b
) The child's
unawareness that a parent committed the act or acts of domestic violence.
(
c
) The child's
preference for reinstating, maintaining or increasing parenting time with a
parent who committed the act or acts of domestic violence.
4. Consider the parent's attendance
at a domestic violence treatment program.� The court may not consider a
certificate of completion alone as proof of rehabilitation.� A parent who
wishes to use attendance at a domestic violence treatment program as rebuttal
evidence must do all of the following:
(
a
) Waive the
associated statutory privilege or other confidentiality necessary to release
that person's treatment records to the court and the victim.
(
b
) Establish
that the treatment program was both relevant and proportionate to the act or
acts of domestic violence for which the parent was adjudicated.
(
c
) Demonstrate
an understanding of how the parent's act or acts of domestic violence harmed
the family.
(
d
) Prove that
the treatment program addressed and helped reduce any tendency to minimize or
rationalize the act or acts of domestic violence.
5. Evaluate whether a parent's chosen
treatment program was relevant and proportionate to that person's history of
domestic violence. In making this evaluation, the court shall consider the
criteria outlined in the Arizona administrative code that governs treatment
standards for misdemeanor domestic violence offenders.
H. If the parent who committed an act
or acts of domestic violence fails to overcome the mandatory presumption
prescribed in subsection F of this section, the court shall do all of the
following:
1. Not grant joint legal decision-making
or sole legal decision-making authority to that parent.
2. Impose restrictions on the manner
and frequency of that parent's interactions with the child that are consistent
with the proven act or acts of domestic violence, including any of the
following:
(
a
) Order that
an exchange of the child occur in a protected location or a safe exchange
location as prescribed in section 25-403.10 that is specified by the court.
(
b
) Limit
parenting time, including a prohibition on overnight parenting time with the
child.
(
c
) Designate a
professional agency or one or more persons to supervise parenting time.� The
court may not appoint the victim of the act or acts of domestic violence to
serve as the supervisor, whether alone or with another person. The
court may not appoint a person to supervise parenting time unless the parent
being supervised affirms to the court that the appointed supervisor will do all
of the following:
(
i
) Receive and
read the court's order.
(
ii
) Provide a
reliable telephone number, email address and residential address to both
parents.
(
iii
) Intervene
and contact an appropriate law enforcement agency, the department of child
safety and the other parent if the supervised parent's behavior endangers the
child or becomes psychologically abusive.
(
iv
) Appear for
future court proceedings and testify regarding the supervision.
(
d
) order the
parent who committed the act or acts of domestic violence to pay a fee for the
costs of supervised parenting time.
(
e
) Suspend access to the child, in any form, until the
parent who committed an act or acts of domestic violence can petition for a
modification of legal decision-making or parenting time pursuant to section
25-411.
(
f
) Order the
parent who committed the act or acts of domestic violence to attend and
complete a program of intervention for perpetrators of domestic violence and
any other counseling the court orders.
(
g
) If the
court finds that the parent who committed the act or acts of domestic violence
has also abused alcohol, other intoxicants or controlled substances, the court
may order that parent to abstain from possessing or consuming alcohol, other
intoxicants or controlled substances.
(
h
) Require a
bond for the child's safe return from the parent who committed the act or acts
of domestic violence.
(
i
) Order that
the address of the child and other parent remain confidential.
(
j
) Impose any
other condition that the court determines is necessary to protect the child,
the other parent and any other family or household member.
I. The court may not order a victim
of domestic violence, whether the child or a parent, to join the parent who
committed an act or acts of domestic violence in any inpatient or outpatient
treatment program, counseling program or forensic assessment, whether
telephonic, virtual or in person.
H.
J.
The
court may request or order the services of the department of child safety if
the court believes that a child may be the victim of child abuse or neglect as
defined in section 8-201.
I.
K.
In
determining whether the absence or relocation of a parent shall be weighed
against that parent in determining legal decision-making or parenting time, the
court may consider whether the absence or relocation was caused by an act of
domestic violence by the other parent.
L. For the purposes of this section:
1. "coercive control":
(
a
) Means a
pattern of threatening, humiliating or intimidating actionS that is used to
harm, punish or frighten a person.
(
b
) Includes
all of the following:
(
i
) A pattern
of behavior that takes away A person's liberty or freedom.
(
ii
) Stripping
A person's sense of self, bodily integrity and human rights.
(
iii
) Isolating
a person from friends and family.
(
iv
) Depriving
a person of independence.
(
v
) Regulating
a person's everyday behavior.
(
vi
) Monitoring,
surveilling, regulating or controlling a person's finances, economic resources
or access to services, or those of the person's child or relative.
(
vii
) Monitoring,
surveilling, regulating or controlling a person's activities, communications or
movements, including through the use of technology, or those of the person's
child or relative.
(
viii
) Name-calling,
degrading or demeaning a person or the person's child or relative on a frequent
basis.
(
ix
) Threatening
to harm or kill a person or the person's child or relative, including wearing,
accessing, displaying, using or cleaning a weapon in an intimidating or
threatening manner.
(
x
) Threatening
to commit suicide or self harm, when used as a method of coercion, control,
punishment, intimidation or retaliation against a person.
(
xi
) Threatening
to harm or kill an animal that a person or the person's child or relative has
an emotional bond with.
(
xii
) Threatening
to publish a person's sensitive personal information, including sexually
explicit material, or those of the person's child or relative.
(
xiii
) Threatening
to make reports to law enforcement authorities without reasonable cause.
(
xiv
) Damaging
a person's property or household goods, or those of the person's child or
relative.
(
xv
) Threatening
a person or the person's child or relative with deportation, contacting
authorities based on perceived or actual immigration status, withholding
essential documents required for immigration or threatening to withdraw or
interfere with an active immigration application or process.
(
xvi
) Forcing a
person or the person's child or relative to take part in criminal activities or
child abuse.
2. "Collateral act" means
conduct that, in time, location, sequence and causation, is substantially
distinct from the occurrences or acts at issue before the court.
3. "domestic violence":
(
a
) means, when
perpetrated by one parent against the other parent or against a minor child
living in either parent's household, either of the following:
(
i
) DOMESTIC
violence as defined in section 13-3601.
(
ii
) coercive
control.
(
b
) Does not
include defense of self or another if the defensive acts were proportionate to
the assault and the parent claiming self-defense did not provoke the
altercation.
END_STATUTE
Sec. 2. Section 25-404, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended to read:
START_STATUTE
25-404.
Temporary orders
A. A party to a legal
decision-making and parenting time proceeding may move for a temporary
order. This motion must be supported by pleadings as provided in
section 25-411. The court may award temporary legal decision-making
and parenting time under the standards of section 25-403 after a hearing,
or, if there is no objection, solely on the basis of the pleadings.
B. If a proceeding for dissolution of marriage or
legal separation is dismissed, any temporary legal decision-making or parenting
time order is vacated unless a parent or the child's custodian moves that the
proceeding continue as a legal decision-making or parenting time proceeding and
the court finds, after a hearing, that the circumstances of the parents and the
best interest of the child require that a legal decision-making or parenting
time plan decree be issued.
C. If a legal decision-making or parenting time
proceeding commenced in the absence of a petition for dissolution of marriage
or legal separation is dismissed, any temporary
custody
legal decision-making or parenting time
order thereby is
vacated.
D. If a party to a proceeding for a
temporary order for legal decision-making or parenting time pursuant to this
section alleges that the other party committed an act or acts of domestic
violence as defined in section 25-403.03, the court shall make written
findings regarding the allegation of the act or acts of domestic violence
pursuant to the requirements of section 25-403.03.
END_STATUTE
Sec. 3. Section 25-411, Arizona Revised
Statutes, is amended to read:
START_STATUTE
25-411.
Modification of
legal decision-making or parenting time; affidavit; contents; military
families; acts of domestic violence
A. A person shall not make a motion to modify a
legal decision-making or parenting time decree earlier than one year
after its date, unless the court
permits
allows
it to be made on the basis of affidavits that there is reason to believe
the child's present environment may seriously endanger the child's physical,
mental, moral or emotional health. At any time after a joint legal
decision-making order is entered, a parent may petition the court for
modification of the order on the basis of evidence that domestic violence
involving a violation of section 13-1201 or 13-1204, spousal abuse
or child abuse occurred since the entry of the joint legal decision-making
order. Six months after a joint legal decision-making order is
entered, a parent may petition the court for modification of the order based on
the failure of the other parent to comply with the provisions of the
order. A motion or petition to modify an order shall meet the
requirements of this section.� Except as otherwise provided in this section, if
a parent is a member of the United States armed forces, the court shall
consider the terms of that parent's military family care plan to determine what
is in the child's best interest during that parent's military deployment.
B. If the parent with whom the parent's child
resides a majority of the time receives temporary duty, deployment, activation
or mobilization orders from the United States military that involve moving a
substantial distance away from the parent's residence
,
a
court shall not enter a final order modifying parental rights and
responsibilities and parent-child contact in an existing order until ninety
days after the deployment ends, unless a modification is agreed to by the
deploying parent.
C. The court shall not consider a parent's absence
caused by deployment or mobilization or the potential for future deployment or
mobilization as the sole factor supporting a real, substantial and
unanticipated change in circumstances pursuant to this section.
D. On motion of a deploying or nondeploying,
mobilizing or absent military parent, the court, after a hearing, shall enter a
temporary order modifying parental rights and responsibilities or parent-child
contact during the period of deployment or mobilization if:
1. A military parent who has legal decision-making
or parenting time pursuant to an existing court order has received notice from
military leadership that the military parent will deploy or mobilize in the
near future.
2. The deployment or mobilization would have a
material effect on the military parent's ability to exercise parental rights
and responsibilities or parent-child contact.
E. On motion of a deploying parent, if reasonable
advance notice is given and good cause is shown, the court shall allow that
parent to present testimony and evidence by electronic means with respect to
parenting time or parent-child contact matters instituted pursuant to this
section if the deployment of that parent has a material effect on that parent's
ability to appear in person at a regularly scheduled hearing.� For the purposes
of this subsection, "electronic means" includes communication by
telephone or video teleconference.
F. The court shall hear motions for modification
because of deployment as expeditiously as possible.
G. If a military parent receives military temporary
duty, deployment, activation or mobilization orders that involve moving a
substantial distance away from the military parent's residence or that
otherwise have a material effect on the military parent's ability to exercise
parenting time, at the request of the military parent, for the duration of the
military parent's absence the court may delegate the military parent's
parenting time, or a portion of that time, to a child's family member, including
a stepparent, or to another person who is not the child's parent but who has a
close and substantial relationship to the minor child, if the court determines
that is in the child's best interest.� The court shall not allow the delegation
of parenting time to a person who would be subject to limitations on parenting
time.� The parties shall attempt to resolve disputes regarding delegation of
parenting time through the dispute resolution process specified in their
parenting plan, unless excused by the court for good cause shown.� A court
order pursuant to this subsection does not establish separate rights to
parenting time for a person other than a parent.
H. All temporary modification orders pursuant to
this section shall include a specific transition schedule to facilitate a
return to the predeployment order within ten days after the deployment ends,
taking into consideration the child's best interests.
I. A decree or order that a court enters in
contemplation of or during the military deployment of a parent outside of the
continental United States shall specifically reference the deployment and
include provisions governing the legal decision-making or parenting time
arrangements, or both, of the minor child after the deployment ends.� Either
parent may file a petition with the court after the deployment ends to modify
the decree or order, in compliance with subsection
L
M
of this section.� The court shall hold a hearing or
conference on the petition within thirty days after the petition is filed.
J. The court may modify an order granting or denying
parenting time rights whenever modification would serve the best interest of
the child, but the court shall not restrict a parent's parenting time rights
unless it finds that the parenting time would endanger seriously the child's
physical, mental, moral or emotional health.
K. If after a legal decision-making or parenting
time order is in effect one of the parents is charged with a dangerous crime
against children as defined in section 13-705, child molestation as
defined in section 13-1410 or an act of domestic violence as prescribed
in section 13-3601 in which the victim is a minor, the other parent may
petition the court for an expedited hearing.� Pending the expedited hearing,
the court may suspend parenting time or change legal decision-making ex parte.
L. An allegation of an act or acts of
domestic violence as defined in section 25-403.03 shall be a primary factor in
the court's consideration of modification of a legal decision-making or
parenting time order.� The court shall allow a parent to present evidence of an
act or acts of domestic violence that occurred before the existing legal
decision-making or parenting time order.�
L.
M.
To
modify any type of legal decision-making or parenting time order a person shall
submit an affidavit or verified petition setting forth detailed facts
supporting the requested modification and shall give notice, together with a
copy of the affidavit or verified petition, to other parties to the proceeding,
who may file opposing affidavits.� The court shall deny the motion unless it
finds that adequate cause for hearing the motion is established by the
pleadings, in which case it shall set a date for hearing on why the requested
modification should not be granted.
M.
n.
The
court shall assess attorney fees and costs against a party seeking modification
if the court finds that the modification action is vexatious and constitutes
harassment.
N.
O.
Subsection
L
M
of this section does not
apply if the requested relief is for the modification or clarification of
parenting time and not for a change of legal decision-making.
END_STATUTE
Sec. 4.
Short title
This act may be cited as the
"Alec and Lydia Act".