The legal landscape has changed for Arizona families deciding on custody for minor children. As of June 22,2026, the Alec and Lydia Act, HB 2995, overhauled the statute that courts use to weigh domestic violence in legal decision-making (custody) and parenting time cases.
The new law was enacted on an emergency basis, immediately impacting family court cases in progress. An experienced family law attorney can explain how the outcome of your pending or future case in light of these changes.
What Prompted the New Law
Alec and Lydia Mater were siblings killed by their father in 2024 during a court-ordered custody arrangement, after their mother had repeatedly raised concerns about the father’s documented history of domestic violence. Their mother worked with lawmakers to craft a bill that would give judges clearer authority to act on documented abuse patterns.
How It Compares to the Old Law
Under the prior version of the law, Arizona courts treated domestic violence as contrary to a child’s best interests. They applied a rebuttable presumption against awarding decision-making authority to a parent found to have committed it, but only certain categories of physical harm or a documented pattern qualified, and joint decision-making was flatly barred only in cases of “significant” domestic violence.
The new law overhauls this framework in several ways:
- Expands the definition of domestic violence. Now, domestic violence formally includes coercive control, a pattern of intimidating, isolating, monitoring, or controlling behavior that may not leave physical evidence but still endangers a child’s wellbeing.
- Broadens the rebuttable presumption. Rather than reserving it for “significant” domestic violence, any finding that a parent committed an act of domestic violence now presumes that awarding that parent legal decision-making or parenting time is contrary to the child’s best interests, shifting the burden onto that parent.
- Removes the corroboration requirement. Now, a victim’s testimony alone can support a finding.
- Requires detailed written findings. These are reviewable de novo on appeal, so appellate courts no longer owe deference to the trial judge’s factual conclusions.
- Applies a preponderance-of-the-evidence standard. This extends to modification requests, not just new filings.
Family law attorneys note the law does not eliminate Arizona’s preference for shared parenting time outright, it allows that preference to be overridden once domestic violence, including coercive control, is established.
How Arizona Compares to Other States
Arizona is not alone in linking domestic violence to custody presumptions, but the Alec and Lydia Act pushes further than many other states’ statutes in the following ways:
- California applies a similar rebuttable presumption, triggered when a parent has perpetrated domestic violence within the previous five years, and recognizes coercive control as abuse. But its presumption is time limited to a five-year lookback, and rebuttal requires proof of specific remedial steps, such as completing a batterer’s intervention program.
- Texas takes a comparably firm stance. Its Family Code bars joint conservatorship entirely when there is credible evidence of a history of family violence, with no rehabilitation exception, though it does not extend the definition to coercive control as explicitly as Arizona’s new law does.
Arizona’s approach stands out for eliminating the corroboration requirement and applying de novo appellate review, features that go beyond what California or Texas currently require.
What This Means for Arizona Parents
For parents in, or anticipating, a legal decision-making or parenting time dispute where abuse has been alleged, the practical effect is significant. Now, Arizona courts must issue explicit, detailed findings on any domestic violence allegation, and a finding, including one based on coercive control, now carries real legal weight from the outset. Because the law already applies to pending cases and modification requests, parents with open matters should not assume the rules haven’t changed simply because their case predates June 2026.
Expert counsel from Webster Family Law is necessary, given how new this area of law is. Anyone facing a custody matter involving domestic violence allegations must understand how the amended statute applies to their situation. Call for a consultation today.