Unlike birth mothers, it isn’t always immediately apparent who fathers a child. So what happens in Arizona if the man a mother presumes is the father of her child refuses to acknowledge paternity or sign a Voluntary Acknowledgement of Paternity with the court and denies the child is his?
Besides child custody, child support amounts and which spouse must pay them are the most commonly contentious issues in Arizona divorces. Typically, the courts require the parent with the lower amount of parenting time to pay child support to the parent with the greater amount of parenting time.
Divorce is never an easy decision and the process is rarely without some degree of contention, but what if one spouse isn’t ready to sign the papers, either out of hope of reconciliation, fear of losing or sharing custody of children, or simply to make the process as difficult as possible for the other spouse?
Domestic abuse can be very difficult for victims to talk about. Many abuse victims have long histories of keeping the abuse they’ve suffered hidden so it becomes a challenge to overcome the strong feelings of shame and secrecy.
