Read the full stored bill text
SB1658 - 572R - S Ver
Senate Engrossed
legal
decision-making; jury trial
State of Arizona
Senate
Fifty-seventh Legislature
Second Regular Session
2026
SENATE BILL 1658
AN
ACT
amending sections 25-403, 25-404
and 25-405, arizona revised statutes; amending title 25, chapter 4,
article 1, arizona revised statutes, by adding section 25-407.01;
amending section 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, Arizona Revised
Statutes, is amended to read:
START_STATUTE
25-403.
Legal decision-making; best interests of child
A. The court shall determine legal decision-making
and parenting time, either originally or on petition for modification, in
accordance with the best interests of the child. The court shall
consider all factors that are relevant to the child's physical and emotional
well-being
, including
in the
following order of importance
:
8.
1.
Whether
there has been domestic violence or child abuse pursuant to section 25-403.03.
6.
2.
Which
parent is more likely to allow the child frequent, meaningful and continuing
contact with the other parent.� This paragraph does not apply if the court
determines that a parent is acting in good faith to protect the child from
witnessing an act of domestic violence or being a victim of domestic violence
or child abuse.
5.
3.
The
mental and physical health of all individuals involved.
1.
4.
The
past, present and potential future relationship between the parent and the
child.
� The court shall consider section 25-403.07.
2.
5.
The
interaction and interrelationship of the child with the child's parent or
parents, the child's siblings and any other person who may significantly affect
the child's best
interest
interests
.
3.
6.
The
child's adjustment to home, school and community.
4.
7.
If
the child is of suitable age and maturity, the wishes of the child as to legal
decision-making and parenting time.
7.
8.
Whether
one parent intentionally misled the court to cause an unnecessary delay, to
increase the cost of litigation or to persuade the court
to give
a legal decision-making or a parenting time preference to that parent
.
9. The nature and extent of coercion or duress used
by a parent in obtaining an agreement regarding legal decision-making or
parenting time.
10. Whether a parent has complied with chapter 3,
article 5 of this title.
11. Whether either parent was convicted of an act of
false reporting of child abuse or neglect under section 13-2907.02.
� If either parent has been convicted of an act of false reporting of
child abuse or neglect, the court shall consider the conviction a presumptive
factor against awarding that parent joint legal decision-making or equal
parenting time.
B. In a contested legal decision-making or parenting
time case, the court shall make specific findings on the record about all
relevant factors and the reasons for which the decision is in the best
interests of the child.
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.�
the court may set the matter for an evidentiary
hearing if the pleadings evidence the risk of child abuse as prescribed in
section 25-403.
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.
END_STATUTE
Sec. 3. Section 25-405, Arizona Revised
Statutes, is amended to read:
START_STATUTE
25-405.
Interviews by court; professional assistance
A. The court may interview the child in chambers to
ascertain the child's wishes as to the child's custodian and as to parenting
time.
B. The court may seek the advice of professional
personnel, whether or not employed by the court on a regular
basis. The advice given shall be in writing and shall be made
available by the court to counsel, on request, under such terms as the court
determines. Counsel may examine as a witness any professional
personnel consulted by the court, unless that right is waived.
C. Either parent may request that the
court appoint professional personnel to interview the child in the court's
chambers in the presence of the judge who is assigned to the
matter. An interview conducted pursuant to this subsection shall be
conducted by professional personnel through the superior court's family
conciliation services.
END_STATUTE
Sec. 4. Title 25, chapter 4, article 1, Arizona
Revised Statutes, is amended by adding section 25-407.01, to read:
START_STATUTE
25-407.01.
Legal decision-making; parenting time; temporary orders; right to
jury trial; arbitration; jury findings; priority
A. In any legal decision-making
or parenting time matter in which a temporary order has been entered by the
court, if either parent has been awarded less than thirty-five percent parenting
time or has not been awarded joint legal decision-making, that parent may
file a motion to request a jury trial.� A jury trial requested pursuant to this
section shall be set within one hundred twenty days after the filing of the
motion to request a jury trial.
B. If a jury trial requested pursuant
to subsection a of this section cannot be set within one hundred twenty days
after the filing of the motion to request a jury trial, the court shall appoint
an arbitrator who is licensed to practice law in this state to hear the
matter.� Each parent shall have two chances to object to the appointed
arbitrator.� An objection to the appointed arbitrator shall be made by filing
the objection with the court within three days after the arbitrator is
appointed.
C. In a contested legal decision-making
or parenting time proceeding, the jury shall make specific findings on the
record of the factors prescribed in section 25-403, subsection a and the
reasons for which the jury verdict is in the best INTERESTs of the child.
D. The request for a jury trial
pursuant to this section shall take priority over other civil cases.
END_STATUTE
Sec. 5. Section 25-411, Arizona Revised
Statutes, is amended to read:
START_STATUTE
25-411.
Modification of legal decision-making or parenting time;
affidavit; child abuse; contents; military families
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
or if a person alleges a
change in the factors prescribed in section 25-403, subsection A
. 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 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. 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. 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. Subsection L 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