If you filed your Arizona custody case before June 22, 2026, you may wonder if the new child safety law applies to your case. We believe that it does. Here are eight reasons why we believe that it applies to your case and what you can argue in court.
You do not need all eight reasons to convince a court to apply the Act since any one of them can carry the day. But arguing all eight of them is an overwhelming analysis as to why the Act should be used for ALL cases. If you are representing yourself, pick the one or two that fit your situation and the ones that make sense to you.
Eight Reasons the Alec and Lydia Act Applies to Cases Filed Prior to June 22, 2026
Legislative Intent
Representative Lisa Fink sponsored the Act. We asked her directly whether it applies to cases filed before June 22, 2026. Her response was that “it should apply to ALL cases.” Representative Fink has recently used social media to emphasize this issue. She also advised me that the judiciary asked for extra time to train the judges on this Act so it could be applied immediately. The legislature delayed the Governor’s signing so the judges could be trained.
Arizona’s Public Policy Is Child's Safety First Over Parental Access
The Act makes child safety the public policy of Arizona over parental access. This matters because for years courts weighed a child’s safety as only one factor among many, balanced against a parent’s right to parenting time and joint legal decision making. The Act places child safety first.
Arizona Courts Have a Duty to Consider a Child’s Best Interests
Every time a court makes an order about children, it has to decide what is best for them on that day. It cannot possibly make a best interest decision that keeps a child safe if it refuses to hear all the evidence or refuses to implement the safety protocols in the Act. A decision made today is made under the law that exists today. Otherwise, children are at risk which was the entire purpose of the Act.
The Language in the Alec and Lydia Act Makes Clear That It Considered Evidence That Happened Prior to June 22, 2026
The Act works together with Arizona’s modification law, A.R.S. 25-411, which expressly allows a parent to bring evidence of domestic violence that occurred before the existing custody orders were entered. The legislature wrote that provision for parents who already have orders in place. If the Act only meant to apply to cases filed after June 22, 2026, that language would be meaningless. The statute plainly contemplated prior evidence in existing cases.
Arizona Courts Have Historically Applied New Family Laws for Existing Cases
This is not the first time Arizona has amended its custody and domestic violence statutes. When the legislature changes these laws, whether by adding factors, raising standards, or renaming custody as legal decision-making and parenting time, courts apply the version of the statute that is in effect at the time of the hearing.
The Alec and Lydia Act Has No Savings Clause
A savings clause is language a legislature includes when it wants a new law to apply only to new cases. The Alec and Lydia Act contains no savings clause. The legislature knew how to limit the Act to future cases only and chose not to do so. That silence is meaningful because when lawmakers leave out language they know how to use, courts read the omission as deliberate.
Arizona Case Law Has Emphasized the Importance of Best Interests Evidence
In Hays v. Gama, the Arizona Supreme Court addressed whether contempt sanctions that excluded a child’s therapist records from evidence improperly interfered with the trial court’s duty to consider the child’s best interests in a custody determination. The Court further held that when custody of children is involved in a court proceeding, the trial court must hear all competent evidence, and that any sanction excluding evidence in a child custody dispute necessarily conflicts with the court’s overriding obligation to protect the child’s best interests. Hays v. Gama has been narrowed by subsequent case law but remains foundational to Arizona family law.
Many of the Alec and Lydia Act Safeguards and Provisions Are Not New
Many of the protections in the Alec and Lydia Act were already available to Arizona judges before the law passed. Courts could already order supervised parenting time, require completion of a domestic violence program, restrict decision-making, and impose safety conditions on exchanges. What the Act changed is that these protections are no longer left to each judge’s discretion. Where there is a finding of domestic violence, the Act makes the presumption and the protections mandatory, and it requires the judge to explain the decision in writing. So applying the Act to your case does not ask the court to invent a new power. It asks the court to use tools it always had, now that the legislature has required it. Applying the Act to all cases heard after June 22, 2026 promotes consistency, fairness and justice for all families.
Courtroom Arguments
Most hearings on whether to use the Alec and Lydia Act might begin with arguments from each side. When you get to speak, you could consider this argument:
Your Honor, it should apply to today's hearing. The legislative intent, as announced by Lisa Fink, the bill’s sponsor, said it applies to ALL cases, and there is nothing in the law that limits it to cases filed after June 22, 2026. I am asking the court to apply it today.
The court may announce that the Act applies right away, or it may delay making a decision. Either way, be ready to put on your evidence.
If the Court Says The Act Does Not Apply
Ask for written findings in your pre-trial and in the courtroom:
Your Honor, I respectfully ask the court to make written findings for today's hearing.
Written findings create a record of what the judge decided and why. The court has to analyze the evidence in writing. That record is what you would need if you ever take the matter up on appeal.
What is an Offer of Proof?
Your evidence should come in either under the Alec and Lydia Act or under the best interests factors the court already has a duty to hear and analyze but the court may attempt to exclude it. This blog summary is not a shortcut for learning all about trial rules, evidence, exhibits, or drafting pre-trial statements. It is a reminder that unless you know how to do all of this and know what to do when the court throws you a curve ball, you might not be able to get your evidence into the record. And if it is not in the record, you cannot effectively appeal. Many times a case is lost not because your evidence was not persuasive but because it was never admitted into the record so the judge never heard it. A court cannot make correct decisions to protect your child if it does not have all the evidence.
One last thought, if the court rules that your evidence is inadmissible because your case was filed prior to June 22, 2026, consider making an offer of proof.
Your Honor, I would like to make an offer of proof.
Then you are entitled to read aloud into the court record, exactly what that evidence was and what it would have shown. This puts it into the court record even though it was not admitted so it is preserved on appeal.
