Practical Guide | Domestic Violence in Arizona Divorce | Article 5 of 5
A practical next-step guide for domestic violence victims in an Arizona divorce or parenting dispute after the Alec and Lydia Act.
By Tali Best Collins, Esq. | Managing Partner, Best Law Firm
Last reviewed: June 2026
The Alec and Lydia Act changed Arizona law on June 22, 2026. But a new law only protects you if you know how to use it. Understanding what changed is the first step. Knowing what to do with that knowledge is what actually moves your case. This article is written for parents who are in a divorce or a parenting dispute right now where domestic violence has been part of their story. This is not a legal analysis of the statute but a practical guide to what you should be doing, what you should be gathering, and what you should be expecting from this process under the new law. You are not alone in this. We have been doing this work for nearly twenty years. Here is what we know.
The Alec and Lydia Act changed Arizona law on June 22, 2026. But a new law only protects you if you know how to use it. Understanding what changed is the first step. Knowing what to do with that knowledge is what actually moves your case.
This article is written for parents who are in a divorce or a parenting dispute right now where domestic violence has been part of their story. This is not a legal analysis of the statute but a practical guide to what you should be doing, what you should be gathering, and what you should be expecting from this process under the new law. You are not alone in this. We have been doing this work for nearly twenty years. Here is what we know.
Under the old Arizona law the burden of proof fell heavily on the victim. You had to prove the abuse was serious enough, frequent enough, significant enough. You had to overcome arguments that the child was not present, that the child did not know, that the child still wanted to see the other parent. You had to prove your case against a system that gave judges wide discretion to minimize what they heard and what safety measures to put in place to protect your child.
The Alec and Lydia Act changes all of that and shifts the burden to the abuser. When the court finds domestic violence occurred the abusive parent must now overcome a mandatory presumption that they should have no parenting time and no legal decision making rights. The starting position has changed. That does not mean you stop building your case. It means you are building it from a stronger foundation and from a safety perspective that now favors your child.
Knowing this before you walk into a hearing changes how you prepare. We have written four other articles in this series that explain exactly what the new law requires, what judges must now do, what coercive control means under the new definition, and the story behind the law itself. Read them. Understanding the legal framework before your first hearing gives you and your attorney a shared foundation to build from.
Before you start gathering evidence it helps to understand what you are gathering evidence of. Many victims come to us not knowing that what happened to them has a legal name. The Alec and Lydia Act significantly expanded Arizona’s definition of domestic violence to include coercive control, which means a pattern of behavior designed to dominate, isolate, and control another person even when no physical violence occurred.
Coercive control includes financial monitoring and control, isolation from friends and family, surveillance and tracking, threats, demeaning and degrading conduct, threats involving immigration status, welfare check calls placed as harassment, and using family court itself as a weapon by filing false or frivolous claims to exhaust or punish the other parent. It also includes physical and sexual assault, threats to harm you or your pets, displaying or cleaning a firearm in a threatening way, and forcing you to commit crimes.
If you read that list and recognized your own life, that recognition matters. You do not have to be certain whether it legally qualifies before you call us. That is exactly what the consultation is for. What we need from you is your story. What you have lived through. We will help you understand what it means under the law.
Before you start pulling together individual documents, sit down and write your timeline. Start from the beginning. How you met. What the relationship was like early on. When things started to change. When the first incident happened. How it progressed from there. The pattern of control, the escalations, the incidents you remember most clearly, the ones that are harder to remember but that you know happened.
Include dates where you know them and approximate timeframes where you do not. Include what was said, what was done, how you responded, what happened to you physically and emotionally, who else was present or nearby, and what changed in your life as a result of each incident or pattern of behavior. Include the children. What they witnessed. What they may have said. How their behavior changed.
This timeline is the backbone of your case. It gives your attorney the full picture before the first hearing. It helps identify which documents to gather and which witnesses to contact. And a written account prepared now, close in time to the events, is far more credible in court than testimony reconstructed from memory months or years later. Do this before your consultation if you can.
Domestic violence cases are often decided by testimony, credibility, and documentation. The new law makes it easier to prove that domestic violence occurred — corroboration is no longer required and prior acts evidence is now broadly admissible even if it was previously litigated or predates your current case. But easier does not mean automatic. You still need evidence. Here is what to gather.
Screenshots of threatening, controlling, or demeaning communications. Demands about money, your whereabouts, who you talked to or spent time with. Messages monitoring your activity. Threats of any kind. Save everything to a location the other parent cannot access — a separate email account, a cloud drive in your name only, or a device they do not have access to. Do not delete anything, even messages that seem minor in isolation. Patterns are built from small pieces.
Bank statements showing restricted access or transactions you did not authorize. Records of accounts you were excluded from. Evidence of an allowance system where you had to ask permission to spend money or account for every purchase. Pay stubs or employment records if your employment was sabotaged or interfered with. Evidence of financial monitoring, including access to your accounts without your permission. Financial control is one of the most common forms of coercive control and one of the hardest to leave because it removes the practical means to do so. Document it.
Every report ever filed, even ones where no arrest was made, even ones where you were listed as the aggressor because of what the other parent told police, even reports from years ago. Incidents where police were called for any reason connected to the relationship including wellness checks, disturbances, property damage, or threats. DUI arrests or other criminal incidents involving the other parent during the marriage. Nothing is too old to be relevant if it helps establish a pattern. Under the Alec and Lydia Act prior acts are now admissible even if they predate your current case or were previously litigated.
Any Order of Protection you have ever obtained against the other parent, whether currently active or long expired. The application you filed, the order itself, any service documents, any records of violations, and any hearings that resulted in the order being continued, modified, or dismissed. Also any orders the other parent obtained against you, which may reflect the dynamic of the relationship and the history of conflict. Orders of Protection create a court record that can establish a documented history of domestic violence going back years. Obtain copies of everything from the court.
Emergency room visits, urgent care records, and any records of injuries documented by a treating physician. Visits for anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, or other health conditions that developed or worsened during the relationship. Records of treatment for conditions connected to trauma or chronic stress. If you sought medical care after any incident those records are evidence. Request them from every provider now. Medical records create a documented timeline of harm that is difficult to dispute.
Records from any therapist, counselor, psychologist, or behavioral health provider you have seen during or after the relationship. Session notes, diagnoses, treatment plans, and letters from providers who can speak to the impact of the abuse on your mental and emotional health. If your provider documented what you told them about the relationship those records may be powerful evidence of the pattern and its effects. You control whether to waive privilege and share these records. Discuss with your attorney before releasing anything.
Records of medications prescribed during or after the relationship for anxiety, depression, sleep, pain, or trauma-related conditions. A pattern of new or escalating prescriptions during the period of abuse can support the testimony about its impact on your health. Your pharmacy maintains a full prescription history. Your prescribing physician's records document the clinical basis for each prescription. These records can corroborate the story your timeline tells.
Friends, family members, coworkers, neighbors, and anyone else who witnessed abuse, witnessed changes in your behavior or health, saw injuries, or noticed the isolation as it progressed. Anyone you told about an incident at or close to the time it happened — a text to a friend, a call to your sister, a conversation with a coworker the morning after. People who were deliberately cut off from you by the other parent. Write down their names, their relationship to you, and what they know or observed. Contact them now while the details are fresh. Contemporaneous witnesses — people you told at the time — carry particular weight.
Tracking devices found on your car, phone, or computer. Screenshots of surveillance applications or monitoring software. Records of welfare check calls placed to law enforcement as a harassment tactic. Screenshots of repeated text messages or emails sent to monitor your location or activity. Social media posts or messages that show monitoring, threats, or control. Evidence that the other parent accessed your email, opened your mail, or hacked into your accounts. Records of repeated court filings in your case filed not to resolve a legal issue but to force you back into proceedings and drain your resources. All of it is potentially relevant under the new definition of coercive control. Gather what you have and write down what you cannot yet document.
In addition to your timeline, write a narrative account of what happened. Every incident you remember, in as much detail as you can. What was said and what was done. How you responded. What you felt. What you did afterward. Who you told. How your daily life changed as a result. A written account prepared close in time to the events is more credible and more useful than testimony reconstructed from memory at a hearing months from now. Do not edit yourself. Write everything. Your attorney will help you understand what is most relevant.
A consultation with Tali is where the strategy starts. To make the most of that conversation bring what you have. You do not need everything organized perfectly. Bring what you can and describe the rest. If you have started a timeline, bring it.
The most useful things to bring: any existing court orders including Orders of Protection active or expired, any police reports, your timeline of the marriage and the abuse even if it is rough and incomplete, any communications you have saved that show the pattern, and a clear picture of the children — their ages, their schools, the current parenting arrangement, and your specific concerns about their safety when they are with the other parent.
Also bring your honest account of what has happened in any prior court proceedings. If a judge previously awarded the other parent parenting time despite domestic violence evidence, Tali needs to know that. If prior proceedings produced orders that left you and your children unprotected, that history matters under the new law. If you went to another attorney and felt unheard, tell her that too. She needs the full picture to give you an honest assessment.
Domestic violence cases under the Alec and Lydia Act are going to require more court time than they did before. The new law demands thorough written findings, rigorous evaluation of rebuttal evidence, and specific analysis of protective conditions. Judges can no longer shortcut the process. That means hearings will take longer and the preparation required is more substantial.
Your attorney needs you to be responsive. Return calls and emails promptly. Gather the documents requested without delay. Be honest about the full history including the parts that are complicated or that you are uncertain about. Cases built on a complete and honest record almost always produce better outcomes than cases built on a selective one.
Tell your attorney if something changes. If the other parent violates a court order, document it and report it immediately. If your children say something concerning after parenting time, write it down with the date and the exact words and notify your attorney right away. The new law creates a record that follows the case into any future proceedings. Every documented violation, every concerning statement from a child, every safety incident becomes part of that record. Nothing is too small to note.
Under the Alec and Lydia Act every hearing where domestic violence is alleged must now produce specific written findings from the judge. That means your hearing is not over when the judge announces a ruling from the bench. The written findings that follow are equally important. Read them carefully when they are issued. If they do not accurately reflect the evidence that was presented, or if they fail to address the factors the new law requires, discuss that with your attorney immediately. Inadequate findings are grounds for appeal.
At the hearing itself you will likely be asked to testify about the history of the abuse. Prepare with your attorney before you walk in. Be specific. Use dates and details where you have them. Describe the pattern, not just isolated incidents. The new law allows the court to consider the full history of domestic violence including prior acts, prior litigation, and evidence of coercive control even if those issues were addressed in a prior proceeding. That full history is your evidence. Present it.
If the other parent attempts to rebut the mandatory presumption you have the right to respond to their evidence. A certificate of completion from a treatment program is no longer enough on its own. The court must evaluate whether the program was actually relevant to the abuse that occurred, whether the other parent waived privilege and allowed access to their treatment records, and whether they demonstrated genuine insight into how their behavior harmed you and your children. Your attorney can challenge a rebuttal that does not meet the new standard. And the standard is high.
Many people who come to us have been living with domestic violence for years before they find their way to a lawyer’s office. Some have tried before and felt unheard. Some were told what happened to them did not qualify as domestic violence. Some have been ignored by attorneys who did not understand what they were describing or did not take it seriously enough. Some are not yet sure what to call what they have lived through.
You do not need to have it figured out before you call. You do not need photos or a police report or a perfect timeline. You need your story. What you have suffered. What has happened to you and to your children. That is where we start.
Tali handles every new client consultation personally. She is a trauma informed attorney and so are her colleagues. She will listen without minimizing. She will ask the right questions and give you the time you need to answer them. She will help you understand what the new law means for your specific situation, what evidence matters most, and what you can do right now to protect yourself and your children.
You are not alone. And you do not have to navigate this by yourself.
Read the full series:
Domestic violence legal help in Arizona
Child custody and parenting time in Arizona
What proof do you need for an Order of Protection in Arizona?
If domestic violence, coercive control, child safety, or parenting time is part of your Arizona family law case, a focused consultation can help you understand what evidence matters and what the court should now be required to consider.
Tali Best Collins, Esq. is the Managing Partner of Best Law Firm and has practiced family law exclusively in Arizona for nearly twenty years. She serves as a Judge Pro Tem in Maricopa County Superior Court and has been recognized as a Southwest Rising Star by Super Lawyers. She and her colleagues are trauma informed attorneys. She handles all new client consultations at Best Law Firm.
Best Law Firm | 7025 N. Scottsdale Road Suite 303 | Scottsdale, AZ 85253 | (480) 219-2433 | Talk to Tali
This article is for general informational purposes only and is not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Arizona family law outcomes depend on the facts of each case, current statutes, court rules, local procedures, and judicial discretion. If you are in immediate danger, call 911.
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