Terms Used In Arizona Laws > Title 25 > Chapter 9 > Article 3 - Civil Provisions of General Application

• Action: includes any matter or proceeding in a court, civil or criminal. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• Child: means an individual, whether over or under the age of majority, who is or is alleged to be owed a duty of support by the individual's parent or who is or is alleged to be the beneficiary of a support order directed to the parent. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
• Child support order: means a support order for a child, including a child who has attained the age of majority under the law of the issuing state or foreign country. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
• Deposition: An oral statement made before an officer authorized by law to administer oaths. Such statements are often taken to examine potential witnesses, to obtain discovery, or to be used later in trial.
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Duty of support: means an obligation imposed or imposable by law to provide support for a child, spouse or former spouse, including an unsatisfied obligation to provide support. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• 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

• Foreign tribunal: means a court, administrative agency or quasi-judicial entity of a foreign country that is authorized to establish, enforce or modify support orders or to determine parentage of a child. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
• Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
• Hearsay: Statements by a witness who did not see or hear the incident in question but heard about it from someone else. Hearsay is usually not admissible as evidence in court.
• including: means not limited to and is not a term of exclusion. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Income: includes earnings or other periodic entitlements to money from any source and any other property subject to withholding for support under the laws of this state. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
• Income withholding order: means an order or other legal process directed to an obligor's employer, payor or other debtor to withhold support from the income of the obligor. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
• Initiating tribunal: means the tribunal of a state or foreign country from which a petition or comparable pleading is forwarded or in which a petition or comparable pleading is filed for forwarding to another state or foreign country. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Law: includes decisional and statutory law and rules and regulations having the force of law. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Minor: means a person under eighteen years of age. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• 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

• Outside this state: means a location in another state or a country other than the United States, whether or not the country is a foreign country. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
• Person: means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture, public corporation, government or governmental subdivision, agency or instrumentality, or any other legal or commercial entity. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
• Petition: includes a complaint. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
• Process: means a citation, writ or summons issued in the course of judicial proceedings. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Property: includes both real and personal property. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and that is retrievable in perceivable form. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
• Register: means to file in a tribunal in this state a support order or judgment that determines parentage of a child and that is issued in another state or a foreign country. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
• Registering tribunal: means a tribunal in which a support order or a judgment determining parentage of a child is registered. 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
• Testify: includes every manner of oral statement under oath or affirmation. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• 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