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Sept. 17, 2018-Equal Shared Parenting Time is not a contradiction to children’s best interests

The comprehensive professional perspective also revealed that the law [the Arizona law] is evaluated positively overall and positively in terms of children’s best interests. This is noteworthy because in ongoing debates in most other state legislatures, arguments that a rebuttable presumption of equal parenting time would constrain judicial latitude in dealing with atypical families and thereby be averse to children’s best interests have helped prevent similar legislation from being enacted. The fact that the Arizona law is seen as beneficial to children’s best interests suggests that courts continue to exercise latitude when necessary, as intended. The 2013 reforms left largely intact the list of children’s best interest factors that courts are required to consider in determining the appropriateness of a parenting time plan.

William V. Fabricius, Michael Aaron, Faren R. Akins, John J. Assini & Tracy McElroy (2018): What Happens When There Is Presumptive 50/50 Parenting Time? An Evaluation of Arizona’s New Child Custody Statute, Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, pp. 13 – 14. DOI:10.1080/10502556.2018.1454196

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