Arizona Couples Won’t have to Wait to Divorce
Lawmakers in Arizona have voted down legislation that would have let one member of a divorcing couple prolong the divorce process for up to 6 months.
With a 33-23 vote, the Arizona House voted down legislation that would have allowed one of the parties in a divorce case to demand that the divorce procedure go on for four months longer than is now required, according to the East Valley Tribune.
Currently, Arizona is a no fault state, where couples need only report that a marriage is “irretrievably broken” in order to legally end it. Under existing Arizona divorce laws, a judge needs to wait only 60 days after a petition gets filed to grant a formal divorce decree.
One supporter of the failed legislation argued that the state should take an interest in keeping couples together. Representative Nancy Barto, a Republican out of Phoenix, tried to sway her colleagues towards just such a perspective.
“Financially, homes that break up cost the state,” she argued. “It should be the policy of our state to encourage families to stay together.”
Opponents of the bill say that the longer waiting periods could mean more uncertainty for children and higher stress for couples already having trouble.
Barto’s initial proposal included extending the 60 day requirement to formally finalize a divorce after 180 days in all cases. When that was met with opposition, Barto drafted a scaled-back version of the bill. Instead requiring 180 days, either party in a divorce could request the stay of finalization from the court.
“The judge has to issue the order,” said Representative Andy Biggs, a Republican out of Gilbert. Biggs, who is also an attorney, told the East Valley Tribune that he was glad about the change in the bill that let the court decide whether to allow the delay.
Still, he thought that the bill wasn’t where it should be. “In order to get around it, the non-moving party has now got the burden of proof and must show ‘good cause’ why that should not go forward. I think that’s not appropriate.” Biggs believes that the burden of proof should be on the person who wants to delay the divorce to prove why the couple should remain together for an additional four months.
This may not be the last time that the Arizona House has to deal with the issue, however. While it has been put down for now, there is preliminary approval by the Senate for a measure that is exactly the same as the one that has just been rejected. Senator Linda Gray has sponsored this bill.
Barto might also be able to use parliamentary procedure to bring her own bill back. This keeps alive the possibility of another vote on the issue by the Arizona House.
