{"id":2971,"date":"2017-10-24T08:23:21","date_gmt":"2017-10-24T15:23:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jacksonwhitelaw.com\/arizona-family-law\/?page_id=2971"},"modified":"2022-12-14T11:25:21","modified_gmt":"2022-12-14T18:25:21","slug":"legal-decision-making-definition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jacksonwhitelaw.com\/arizona-family-law\/blog\/legal-decision-making-definition\/","title":{"rendered":"Legal Decision Making Definition in Arizona"},"content":{"rendered":"
Introduction<\/h2>\n
Thousands of people wind up getting divorced each year in the state of Arizona. Many of these couples have underage children, and working out some kind of arrangement of who will have custody, under what circumstances they will have custody, and what the parenting obligations and constraints can be a real challenge to determine.<\/p>\n
Most of us are familiar with the term custody or child custody, which has been used for some time to describe which parent will have authority to act on behalf of the child, or how much time each parent will receive in terms of caring for the child.<\/p>\n
Legal Decision Making: Definition<\/h2>\n
Child custody used to be the term that was used in relation to this; but now in Arizona, the term has been changed to the legal decision-making authority. When you are discussing the parenting arrangements for a child, this is now the term that will be used by the court.<\/p>\n
The legal decision-making authority is determined as part of some form of legal separation, or in relation to matters related to maternity and paternity. When one parent files a petition with the court, they are asking the court to grant them the authority of legal decision-making for that child.<\/p>\n
If the court agrees that a parent has such authority and they meet the statutory requirements to be determined as a parent, then it is the court\u2019s responsibility to ensure that the individual is granted some form of legal decision-making authority so that they can act on behalf of their child.<\/p>\n
What Does Legal Decision-Making Authority Grant?<\/h2>\n