Areas of Family Law Practice

Peter Axelrod practices and is available for consultations and/or representation in the following areas of family law:

Divorce
A final settlement of all legal issues between two married people.

Legal Separation
Similar to a divorce in that there is a final settlement of all legal issues between two married people, except the couple remains legally married and can take advantage of certain tax and health insurance benefits not available to divorced people.

Asset/Debt Division
The identification, valuation and distribution of the couple's assets and debts.

Parenting Arrangements: Child Custody and Visitation
The legal rights and responsibilities of each parent to make decisions for and spend time with their children.

Child Support
Financial support paid by one parent to the other parent. Child support is based on a specific formula used in Arizona.

Spousal Maintenance
Financial support paid by one spouse to the other spouse. Generally, spousal maintenance, which is sometimes called alimony, is based on the length of the marriage, income disparity between the parties and the ability of the potentially receiving spouse to be reasonably self-supporting.

Severance of Parental Rights
An action resulting in the parental rights of a birth parent being permanently terminated.

Adoption
An action that is usually initiated by a stepparent who wants to adopt his or her spouse's child from a previous union. An adoption may occur only after the rights of the other birth parent have been terminated.

Pre-Nuptial Agreements
A contract between two people who plan to marry. Among other things, a Pre-Nuptial Agreement can preserve the pre-marital property of each person as sole and separate, waive spousal maintenance in the event of a divorce, and modify other rights and responsibilities the two people would ordinarily have under Arizona's community property law.

Post-Nuptial Agreements
A contract similar to a Pre-Nuptial Agreement, except that it is entered into between two people after they have married. It has the same effect as a Pre-Nuptial Agreement.

Post-Decree Modifications
Changes to an already-existing court order.