Legal Thoughts by Thomas A Morton

caring, family law attorney in Phoenix, AZ

The Arizona Court of Appeals has recently issued some decisions regarding a few miscellaneous child support issues.  These cases include a parent attempting to recover an overpayment of child support, a court that modified child support after it modified parenting time even though neither party asked the court to modify child support, and a parent who worked part time at an hourly rate who had full-time income attributed to her at the same hourly rate as her part-time income. In the first case, the children’s father overpaid child support because the mother started receiving SSI on behalf of one child.  Meanwhile, the oldest child emancipated.  The father waited one year to terminate child support.  The father argued that his child…
Although adultery can be emotionally devastating, it is usually not relevant to divorce in Arizona.  Arizona is a no-fault divorce state, which means couples can get a divorce without one of them being at fault.  It also means that the court will divide the couple’s property and debt, determine child custody and visitation, and determine child support and spousal maintenance without regard to marital misconduct. Although adultery is not an issue in itself and is not directly relevant to the divorce, it may be relevant to certain narrow issues.  For example, if one spouse incurs tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt having an affair, the other spouse can argue that the resulting debt is community waste which…
Things to think about when contemplating divorce. 1.  Emotional costs. Money and time are not the only costs of a divorce. Sometimes the emotional costs are more than the monetary costs.  Emotional costs include changing relationships with your family and children.  Do you need a divorce in order to be well mentally and emotionally? 2. Strategy. Timing can be important.  Is your income is down, are your assets are devalued, or has your retirement lost value? If you are the main earner in the marriage, is it a good time to calculate spousal maintenance or divide your assets?  Is it possible that the court may require you to provide support based on an income that you no longer earn? 3. …
Wednesday, 14 October 2015 12:00

When Parents Want to Change a Child's Name

Sometimes parents who were never married to each other want to change their child’s last name.  The result is often a hyphenated name.  The legal standard for changing a child’s last name when the parents do not agree to change it rests on a determination of the child’s best interest.  In Arizona, there is very little legal authority to guide us on a disputed child name change. The Arizona Court of Appeals recently issued a memorandum decision regarding a disputed child name change.  The decision is not published, which means that parents and attorneys cannot use it as legal authority in the future, but it contains a useful discussion on two aspects of the legalities of a disputed child name…
Unfortunately, many people lie to the court during legal decision making (custody) and parenting time cases.  Often, the person who is acting badly is the person lying to the court about the other parent.  Too often, these people get away with it because the judge does not know who to believe. One American soldier just solved this problem with his GoPro camera.  His wife is accusing him of domestic violence while she is committing domestic violence against him.  He hid his camera on his body and captured her not only committing domestic violence against him, but threatening to falsely accuse him of committing domestic violence against her.  The story is here: http://www.wtsp.com/story/news/2015/09/20/soldier-uses-gopro-to-prove-wifes-domestic-abuse/72545676/ People often ask if it is legal to…
Friday, 18 September 2015 09:50

Grounds for Divorce in Arizona

The only grounds for divorce in Arizona for most marriages is that the marriage is irretrievably broken, and there is no reasonable prospect of reconciliation.  This essentially means that if one spouse wants a divorce, that spouse will get a divorce.  Spouses wishing to save their marriage have disputed that their marriage is irretrievably broken and that there is no reasonable prospect of reconciliation, but, if either spouse testifies that the grounds for an Arizona divorce exist, there is no judge who will not make the requisite finding.  The judge is not going to force someone to stay married who does not want to stay married.  It is always sufficient for one spouse to testify that the marriage is irretrievably…
Social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Reddit can be a wealth of information for attorneys in family law and other areas of law because people post so much of their lives online and often have online tantrums.  Something as seemingly innocent as a check-in on Foursquare can turn into incriminating evidence.  Your social media activity can be a trail of evidence that the other party can use against you in family court, particularly when legal decision-making (custody) and parenting time are issues.  It can also hurt you in other types of cases, such as bankruptcy or collection matters. Information that people post on social media can be evidence of state of mind, intent, communication, times and places of…
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Thomas A. Morton, P. L. L. C.
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Phoenix, Arizona 85013
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