Arizona Laws 25-1253. Costs and fees
A. The petitioner may not be required to pay a filing fee or other costs.
Terms Used In Arizona Laws 25-1253
- Foreign country: means a country, including a political subdivision of a country, other than the United States, that authorizes the issuance of support orders and to which any of the following applies:
(a) It has been declared under the law of the United States to be a foreign reciprocating country. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
- Law: includes decisional and statutory law and rules and regulations having the force of law. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
- Obligee: means any of the following:
(a) An individual to whom a duty of support is or is alleged to be owed or in whose favor a support order or a judgment determining parentage of a child has been issued. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
- Obligor: means an individual or the estate of a decedent that meets any of the following conditions:
(a) Owes or is alleged to owe a duty of support. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
- Responding state: means a state in which a petition or comparable pleading for support or determination of parentage is filed or to which a petition or comparable pleading is forwarded for filing from another state or a foreign country. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
- Responding tribunal: means the authorized tribunal in a responding state or a foreign country. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
- State: means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
- Support enforcement agency: means a public official, governmental entity or private agency authorized to do any of the following:
(a) Seek the enforcement of support orders or laws relating to the duty of support. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
- Support order: means a judgment, decree, order, decision or directive, whether temporary, final or subject to modification, issued in a state or foreign country for the benefit of a child, a spouse or a former spouse, that provides for monetary support, health care, arrearages, retroactive support or reimbursement for financial assistance provided to an individual obligee in place of child support. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
- Tribunal: means a court, administrative agency or quasi-judicial entity authorized to establish, enforce or modify support orders or to determine parentage of a child. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
B. If an obligee prevails, a responding tribunal of this state may assess against an obligor filing fees, reasonable attorney fees, other costs and necessary travel and other reasonable expenses incurred by the obligee and the obligee’s witnesses. The tribunal shall not assess fees, costs or expenses against the obligee or the support enforcement agency of either the initiating or the responding state or foreign country, except as provided by other law. Attorney fees may be taxed as costs and may be ordered paid directly to the attorney, who may enforce the order in the attorney’s own name. Payment of support owed to the obligee has priority over fees, costs and expenses.
C. The tribunal shall order the payment of costs and reasonable attorney fees if it determines that a hearing was requested primarily for delay. In a proceeding under article 6 of this chapter for the enforcement and modification of a support order after registration, a hearing is presumed to have been requested primarily for delay if a registered support order is confirmed or enforced without change.