ARKANSAS LEGAL UPDATE
By Brian Vandiver
It has been four years since Arkansas passed its equal shared parenting rebuttable presumption, Act 604 of 2021. Since then, Arkansas Advocates for Parental Equality (AAPE) has seen evidence of positive results, particularly with the statistics from the Arkansas Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) (statistics obtained by AAPE through a FOIA request to AOC).
In reviewing the new domestic case filings in Arkansas from 2018 through 2024, a few changes stand out (for this discussion, AAPE excludes the numbers from 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic and Act 604 went into effect during the summer of 2021). First, new divorce filings averaged 22,765 cases per year from 2018-19. That number dropped to 19,092 cases per year from 2022-24, a difference of 3,673 cases a year or 16%! Second, while the total number of paternity cases filed per year has remained somewhat constant (7,360 in 2018 vs 7,412 in 2024), there was a dramatic increase in the paternity actions not seeking corresponding child support (4,309 in 2018 vs 5,756 in 2024) and a similar decrease in the paternity actions seeking corresponding child support (3,051 in 2018 vs 1,656 in 2024). A paternity action seeking child support means the petitioner who initiated the case is requesting child support with the paternity determination (very likely mostly moms) whereas those not seeking child support did not make that request in their petition (very likely mostly dads). Finally, there was a significant decrease in new case filings for orders of protection (an average of 8,585 from 2018-19 to an average of 8,072 from 2022-24, a decrease of 513 or 6%). Though Act 604 may not be the only reason for these trends, AAPE certainly believes it is a strong factor.
Another positive development in Arkansas after Act 604 has been how the Arkansas courts have received and embraced Act 604 in their written decisions. For example, in Heileman v. Cahoon, 2024 Ark. 164 (decided October 31, 2024), the Arkansas Supreme Court said: “In Arkansas, one thing is clear – our legislature has determined that joint custody is favored” and “an equal division of time is the goal.” In the Heileman case, the Arkansas Supreme Court clarified that a “material change in circumstances” is always required to deviate away from joint custody and equal time (unless the parents otherwise agree), but a material change in circumstances may not always be required to adjust parenting time towards equal time between the parties, especially when the circumstance that originally prevented shared equal time (e.g., distance between the parties) has changed and the parents would have otherwise shared equal time and true joint custody from the start.
Finally, the Arkansas Legislature recently passed Act 388 of 2025, which treats “first responders” (firefighter, emergency medical technician, paramedic, or a certified law enforcement officer) like members of the armed forces. In short, it prohibits an Arkansas court from permanently modifying a custody order based upon the first responder’s “work schedule” and, for any temporary modification, requires the court to consider any circumstances necessary to “maximize the time and contact” a first responder has with his or her child.