Arizona Step-Parents' Rights
Step-parents often play an important and instrumental role in children's lives. Unfortunately, sometimes the step-parent and the biological parent end up divorcing. Historically, the step-parent had no legal right to ask a court to order visitation with his or her step-child or step-children.
However, several years ago, the Arizona Legislature enacted a new statute called the In Loco Parentis statute. This new statute gave Arizona step-parents (and others) who played a significant parental role in his or her step-child's life the ability to petition the court for a schedule of visitation with the child. In fact, in situations where both biological parents are unable to effectively discharge their parental responsibilities, the step-parent may be awarded actual custody of the child. This could either be because the biological parent is unfit, such as in cases of drug addiction, or because the biological parent is unavailable, such as in cases of an overseas military deployment.
The court is required to consider the best interest of the child when deciding a step-parent visitation or custody case. The step-parent will need to be able to successfully prove that he or she has a substantial parental role in the child's life and that it is in the child's best interest to continue that relationship in the future despite the divorce from the biological parent. Unfortunately for step-parents, there are numerous cases which state that the biological parent's rights are superior to the step-parent's rights and that the court is required to give special weight to the biological parent's wishes. This makes this area of law incredibly complex and challenging for a step-parent.
If you need advice about your Arizona step-parent's visitation or custodial rights, contact a knowledgeable child custody lawyer at the Belt Law Firm in Scottsdale, Arizona .
