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Arizona lawmakers back bills to expand jury rights and tighten temporary orders in family courts
Summary
Representative Jennifer Keshel pressed a package of family-court reforms at an Arizona House Republican caucus meeting, including a bill to let either party demand a jury trial in certain custody and divorce matters and measures to limit prolonged temporary orders and constrain use of the term “parental alienation.”
Representative Jennifer Keshel and colleagues urged action on multiple family-court bills during the caucus meeting, pressing changes they say would give parents more procedural protections and reduce prolonged temporary orders that can affect children.
Keshel, the sponsor of House Bill 21-52, said the bill would allow either party to demand a jury trial in proceedings “for dissolution of marriage, determination of legal decision making, or parenting time.” She framed the package as restoring a constitutional right and said it grew out of constituent complaints that judges were “making unilateral decisions from the bench, not based on fact.”
The broader package discussed in the same segment included House Bill 22-54, which would require a court to reevaluate each temporary order within six months, and House Bill 22-56 (as amended by committee) that would prohibit a court from taking testimony or making a custody decision based solely on an allegation of parental alienation and would specify what the term means for court proceedings.
Keshel described repeated cases in which, she said, children had been placed with dangerous parents and asserted a jury would be “a much more fair outcome.” She acknowledged court concerns about cost and said an estimated supplemental appropriation of roughly $1 million had been discussed to cover the small share of cases that would go to juries.
Critics asked whether the change could be exploited by abusive parties. Representative Keshle (questioning during caucus) raised the concern that jury trials might enable “abusers and narcissists” to gain advantage; Keshel replied that the intent was to ensure due process and to give families a chance to have decisions reviewed by 12 peers rather than by a single judge.
Sponsor comments on House Bill 22-54 emphasized that temporary orders are intended to be temporary and sometimes are “being dragged out to the point of a year” or longer. The sponsor said the bill would limit that practice and ensure opportunity to revisit custody arrangements.
Where the transcript records only committee or staff summaries of bills and no formal votes, no legislative action or final outcomes are stated in this report.
The bills remain on the third-read or consent calendars as described in caucus; sponsors asked members to follow up with committee chairs or bill sponsors for additional details.
Ending: Sponsors asked members to consult committee materials and constituent case examples cited in committee testimony before floor action.
