Family Law

Dedicated Advocacy During Life-Changing Times

When life changes, you need skilled and compassionate legal counsel. Whether you are ending a marriage, enforcing a divorce decree or adopting a child, you need a dedicated lawyer at your side.

I am family law attorney Elizabeth Estes. I established Estes Law Firm, PLLC, to help my fellow Ahwatukee and Arizona residents during difficult times.

Take Action To Protect Your Family's Future

Specific areas of my Phoenix-area family law practice include:

• Divorce: I represent my clients dealing with life-changing times that come with the end of their marriages. I help them work out property division, legal decision-making (commonly known as child custody), parenting time and child support.

• Mediation: This is a less adversarial process that can be more cost-effective than traditional dissolution proceedings decided by a judge. Spouses meet with a mediator or a neutral third party. That professional meets with the spouses and facilitates a mutually acceptable divorce agreement.

• Prenuptial and postnuptial agreements: A couple may enter into a spousal agreement before marriage, or at any time during the marriage. Such agreements define community and separate property, detail family contribution and debt obligations, and may provide for spousal support. These agreements are not a forecast of failure; they are simply planning tools that may or may not become necessary.

• Enforcements/modifications: When your marriage ends, the court issues a divorce decree which contains orders regarding property and debt division, spousal support, child support, legal decision-making and parenting time. When a change in circumstances, like job loss, disability, or illness, makes it too difficult to continue following the orders in the divorce decree, a modification may be warranted. Conversely, if one of the parties is not following the orders in the divorce decree, an enforcement action may be necessary.

Additional family law services include:

• Adoptions

• Paternity

• Legal separation

• Annulments

• Grandparent visitation

• Non-parental custody issues