Blog Posts: Family Law

Representing a high-level executive in his or her divorce presents unique and recurring challenges to a Family Law practitioner. While every client's divorce has its own particular circumstances, representing high net worth senior level executives have certain commonalities among them regardless of their profession and industry. These include the absence of time to...

People seeking to be divorced or to resolve other problems in the Family Law Division of the Maricopa County Superior Court in the State of Arizona can find themselves trapped in a system that is not well suited to meet their needs. Despite the best efforts of well-intentioned judicial officers and administrators the fundamental problem is that there are simply too...

In Hull v. Wesley [1] the Division One of the Arizona Court of Appeals addressed legal decision-making for children in the context of pain medication.  These medications were taken during the pregnancy.  The child was born addicted to the pain medication and suffered withdrawal and complications after birth. The Appeals Court opinion is a memorandum d...

Video Transcript: Hi, I'm Mitch Reichman. I'm a State Board of Arizona Certified Specialist in Family Law and I practice at Jaburg & Wilk. Will I Have to Appear in Court During my Divorce Proceeding? Yes, typically you'll have to appear in court at least once.  Judges in Maricopa County in divorce cases are very proactive and so they call the parties to a...

Who Has Child Custody Jurisidction- Mexico, Arizona, or California?  The decision in Margain vs. Ruiz-Bours [1] provides some insight into the workings of the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act ("UCCJEA") as adopted by Arizona in Title 25, Chapter 8, Articles 1 through 3.  Facts of the Child Custody ...

Video Transcript: Mediation is preferred to litigation for a myriad of reasons.  First of all, is the cost - mediation is invariably less expensive than litigation.  It is not a few thousand dollars less to mediate; many times it may be ten, twenty, or even thirty thousand dollars less than litigation.  In addition, a benefit of mediation is the case is over ...

Video Transcript What is Opting Out? Are There Advantages in Doing So? Opting out is resolving a family law dispute outside the judicial system. I think that the parties can achieve clear advantages by choosing to opt out and resolve their issues outside the traditional judicial system. One is that the parties control their own destiny. If they opt out by choosing...

Arizona is a community property state and community property law controls the division of all assets of your marital estate. Division of Community Property For example, the acquisition of a new house during the marriage can create difficult community property questions upon divorce. What if there was a contribution of separate property? What if title is held in th...

Loss carry-forward is a frequently forgotten asset in divorces.  Whether the loss arises from the operation of a business (Net Operating Loss) or sale of stocks (capital loss), it is a valuable asset which may be used to offset either future income or capital gains. Currently, the Internal Revenue Code restricts claiming capital losses in excess of capital ga...

The length of a divorce proceeding in Maricopa County is dependent on several factors. The first factor is dependent on the spouses.  The increased conflict and animosity between spouses, along with attachment to certain outcomes create more controversy.  The more controversy or issues there are, the longer it takes to resolve the matter. The Court's cal...