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Hi, I'm Chris Hildebrand of Hildebrand Law. I'm here to answer your question on how to
finalize a divorce in the state of Arizona. There's really three ways you can finalize
a divorce in Arizona. The easiest of which and the most common is when both parties reach
an agreement on all of the issues in their case. If that's the case, then the parties
draft a marital settlement agreement, with a divorce decree, submit it to the court and
the judge will rule on it and sign it as long as it's fair and equitable with respect to
dividing the debts and assets, and the provisions pertaining to child custody, parenting time
and child support are found by the court to be in the best interest of your child or your
children. The second way you can finalize a divorce in Arizona if you haven't reached
an agreement on all of the issues, is to appear in front of the judge in what we call a trial.
Both parties present evidence on the contested issues. The court thereafter rules on those
issues and the judge on his or her own will issue a consent decree, sign it and your divorce
will be final. The third way a divorce can be finalized in the state of Arizona is by
what we call default. A default occurs when one of the spouses has filed a petition for
dissolution of marriage, they have served the other spouse and the other spouse has
failed to file a written answer within the time that they're allotted to do so. In that
case, after an application, an affadavit of default is filed, and some additional time
runs, which is 15 days, then the court will set a default hearing, the spouse who filed
the petition will appear in front of that judge with a pre-drafted divorce decree, the
judge will review it and sign it, again, as long as it's fair and equitable with respect
to assets and debts and the provisions reflect the best interest of the children. If you
have any other questions regarding how to finalize a divorce in Arizona, please feel
free to email me at chris@hildebrandlaw.com.