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Arizona File & Finish

Filed is not served — and here, that distinction IS the clock.

Seven stages between deciding and done. Stage one does not start Arizona's sixty-day floor; stage two does — which is why the honest advice threaded through this tracker is file and serve promptly, and let the clock run while the paperwork proceeds.

← The covenant-first qualifierRun the from-service clock →
  1. 1

    File the petition

    The § 25-312 findings frame the petition (90-day domicile; irretrievable breakdown; covenant grounds where applicable). Filing does NOT start the sixty-day clock — service does, so file and serve promptly.

    § 25-312

  2. 2

    Serve (or obtain acceptance of) process

    This stage starts the clock

    Service or acceptance of process STARTS the § 25-329 sixty-day floor — the single most consequential timing fact in an Arizona dissolution. The Rules of Family Law Procedure govern the mechanics.

    § 25-329

  3. 3

    The response window

    Response deadlines run under the Arizona Rules of Family Law Procedure, which this platform has not yet ingested — the summons you were served states the deadline, and no day count renders here until the rules' own text is stored and verified.

  4. 4

    The sixty-day floor (from service)

    From service — § 25-329

    The court cannot hold a trial or hearing or consider a decree submission until sixty days after service (§ 25-329). Agreed cases use the wait to finish the consent decree; conciliation proceedings, when invoked, add their own pause.

    § 25-329

  5. 5

    Consent decree, default, or trial

    Fully agreed cases commonly finish on a consent decree; a non-responding respondent opens the default path (with its own procedural requirements); real disputes go to trial on the statutory factors. County practice controls the mechanics, and this tracker never guesses them.

    § 25-312

  6. 6

    Decree of dissolution

    The decree ends the marriage and carries the property division (§ 25-318), any maintenance under the guidelines instrument, and the legal decision-making/parenting-time orders (§ 25-403).

    § 25-318§ 25-403

  7. 7

    After the decree

    Titles, beneficiary designations, employer/withholding updates, and the orders' own compliance items — the decree lists them; finishing them makes it real.

Authority locked — retrieved from the hash-pinned corpus

A.R.S. § 25-312 · #eb7f87fcA.R.S. § 25-329 · #33b32dc1A.R.S. § 25-318 · #f522438aA.R.S. § 25-403 · #fec550c6

The tracker's posture, stated once and enforced everywhere: Filed is not served — and in Arizona that distinction IS the clock: the sixty-day floor runs from service, not filing (§ 25-329). Where county practice or the family rules control a step, this tracker says so instead of guessing. Legal information, not legal advice.