if my husband and i want to be legally seperated, can we just draw some papers up ourselves, or even fill out the seperation papers we downloaded from ecourt for maricopa county (in arizona), but just have them notarized and witnessed, instead of going thru the trouble and expense of filing them thru the court? won't they still be 'legal' ?

Fr_Chuck

Not really, you fill them out and notarize them and file them with the court, then they are legal.

It all depends on what level of "legal" you want, Could you force the other party to the terms of the agreement, normally but marriage is controled by the government, and issues related to it, has to be ok'ed by the court and/or filed with them to be reconised.