ARKANSAS DOMESTIC RELATIONS BENCHBOOK

Benchbooks are written by the Administrative Office of the Courts for use by judges and attorneys as a quick reference to the Arkansas Code and case law. It was pointed out during the legislative hearings for Act 604 of 2021 that the Domestic Relations benchbook suggested it was acceptable to disregard the existing law on joint custody. Since that time, the updated benchbook is no longer posted online and is only available by request. This means that judges and attorneys have access, but the general public does not because they don't know to ask for it. We do not believe this is in the public's interest. It puts the public and pro se litigants at a disadvantage and allows the judiciary to continue avoiding transparency and accountability. For those reasons, we have posted it below to be available to all.