The Alec and Lydia Act, HB 2995, went into effect last month in Arizona, and already judges are complaining, according to its sponsor Arizona Republican State Representative Lisa Fink.
State Rep Fink told us on the broadcast that judges said that they didn’t know when evidence under HB 2995 went into effect.
Some were claiming that it only applied to custody cases which were filed after the law was official on June 22, 2026.
As such, she took to the airwaves to make clear, legislative intent. She explained more below.
“The legislative intent was for this law to apply to all active cases,” she told us.
We previously had State Representative Fink’s colleague, Arizona Republican State Representative Rachel Keshel, on to talk about HB 2995.
We continued the discussion with State Rep Fink. HB 2995 puts an emphasis on domestic violence by putting a rebuttable presumption against custody time for someone found by the preponderance of the evidence to have committed domestic violence.
I heard many good things about this law; however, I remain concerned about parts of it.
Rep Fink said that one fix was that prior to HB 2995 a finding of domestic violence only meant losing legal decision-making rights. A parent with a finding of domestic violence could still get 50% custody time.
Now, there is a rebuttable presumption against custody time, meaning a parent with a domestic violence finding would need to present evidence why they should have custody time despite that finding.
My main concern continues to be regarding the section on coercive control, a term I hate.
Proving coercive control by a preponderance of the evidence requires showing a pattern per HB 2995. This is a problem for me.
RICO, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, also has pattern in the law, but the pattern is defined as two or more predicate acts in furtherance of the RICO conspiracy.
Here, the law is vague.
State Rep Fink said that coercive control was necessary because often it’s the only form of abuse. She said that in Hope Hooten’s case- Alec and Lydia’s mom- there was no physical violence, only coercive control. See that portion of the interview below.
State Rep Fink said the law would rely heavily on judges being trained to recognize patterns.
This is another problem for me. I am against training for judges. If the judges need training, we are choosing the wrong judges. Also, judicial training puts money into the system, which is part of the problem. Finally, the trainers get an oversized influence in the court. Check out the debate below.
Rich pointed out that many judges come from different fields of law and could benefit from training. State Rep Fink said many fields require training and continuing education. Judges are no different.
