PHOENIX — The Arizona House of Representatives voted 52-0 last week to pass House Bill HB2995 unanimously. The legislation, dubbed the “Alec and Lydia Act”, provides a sweeping overhaul of how family courts consider domestic violence when making child custody and parenting time decisions.

The bill,  sponsored by Rep. Lisa Fink (R-27), substantially rewrites Arizona Revised Statutes (ARS) Section 25-403.03 by strengthening custody protections for victims of domestic violence. It gives the courts clearer, more detailed guidance in determining who can retain custodial parenting when abuse is alleged, and includes greater direction for visitation for non-custodial parents.

Under current law, courts may consider domestic violence evidence in custody matters, but advocates have long argued that the standards allow too much judicial discretion to minimize abuse findings, resulting in inconsistency. The bill addresses those concerns by establishing a mandatory rebuttable presumption, rather than a discretionary one. It codifies that awarding custody to a parent who committed domestic violence is contrary to the child’s best interests. The mandatory presumption explicitly prohibits courts from requiring victims or their children to prove that shared custody would cause harm.

One of the bill’s most notable expansions is the inclusion of a newly defined form of abuse dubbed “coercive control.” The term covers a broad range of non-physical abuse, including financial control, digital surveillance, immigration threats, threats to harm pets, and threats of suicide as a method of coercion.

The legislation also requires courts to make specific on-the-record written findings addressing examples of coercive control, the severity and circumstances of any abuse, and whether a parent has rebutted the presumption. Those findings would be subject to “de novo” review on appeal, meaning that appellate courts must independently evaluate whether the lower court’s legal reasoning was sufficient rather than simply deferring to it. This standard is intended to reduce cases where judicial leniency may put children at greater risk from an alleged abuser. If a parent deemed to be an abuser cannot rebut the presumption, the bill would strip them of both sole and joint legal decision-making authority and impose mandatory restrictions on parenting time. It can also mandate supervised visitation, safe exchange locations, substance abstinence orders, and, in some cases, complete suspension of access to the child.

The bill now heads to the Senate, where it is also expected to pass without opposition.