Across the country, hundreds of legal specialties are practiced. Still, in many jurisdictions, family courts see the most crowded dockets. Family law deals with marriage, civil unions, and domestic partnerships, including divorce, paternity establishment, and other related cases. Attorneys for family law in Arizona see more than their share of divorces, according to a 2011 study by the U.S. Census Bureau. Approximately 10.8 out of every 1000 Arizona men got divorced the prior year beating the 9.2 national average, and the divorce rate for Arizona women is even higher at 11.9 out of every thousand women beating the national average for women of 9.7. Based on those numbers, Arizona had the 10th highest divorce rate in the country.

There may be some reasons for the high divorce rates and consequently high numbers of family law attorneys Phoenix lays claim to. For one, Arizona is a no fault divorce state. This means that couples seeking a divorce do not have to provide a specific reason, and that the court can grant a divorce even if one partner disagrees. This differs from many states where there is no such thing as a no fault divorce. When the first judicial divorces were granted in Massachusetts in 1780, divorces could only be filed as a result of a major breach of marital vows like infidelity or cruelty. Such regulations still exist in many states. Today, the no fault divorce has been established in some places and the average divorce takes about 1 year, occurring after an average of eight years in a first marriage. The best family law attorneys are able to successfully negotiate these divorces, dividing property appropriately and dissolving the marriage. In Arizona, any property accumulated during the marriage must be divided equitably under Arizona’s community property law unless there is a written agreement to the contrary. Attorneys for family law are familiar with these regulations and know how to put them into practice.

Besides acting as divorce law attorneys, attorneys for family law also deal with issues outside of marriage. Today, many children are born out of wedlock, resulting in some necessary legal actions should the father wish for legal say in the child’s rights or for the mother to receive child support. The presence of a father’s name on a birth certificate is not sufficient proof of paternity in the state of Arizona, so an action must be filed with a superior court in order to officially establish paternity.

Family law information on either of these situations can be obtained through attorneys for family law who specialize in divorce or paternity. The prevalence of these types of cases in Arizona and across the country also mean that plenty of information can be found on the internet. It is important, though, to remember that trustworthy legal advice can only come from an experienced lawyer. For more about this, go here: www.gillaw.com