Evidentiary Hearing

The technical precise use of the term is when the Court holds a proceeding to resolve a factual dispute, not a legal one. It is, in that sense, a lesser form of a trial. Arizona family courts use the term somewhat more broadly and will include legal determinations in an evidentiary hearing. Still, it is best to think of a trial as the proceeding in which all outstanding issues are decided, and an evidentiary hearing as one that is smaller in scope. For example, in Duckstein v. Wolf, 230 Ariz. 227, 233 ¶ 17 (App. 2012), the Court of Appeals found the trial court should have held an evidentiary hearing on the issue of whether Husband was properly served because the notarization on the service document was defective.