There are many bills before the Utah Legislature during their 2025 session that I’m particularly interested in and that I am following. One of them is House Bill 33.
HB 33
Title: Child Welfare Reporting Amendments
Sponsor Christine F. Watkins
Senate Sponsor:
Purpose: This bill: requires the Division of Child and Family Services to notify law enforcement when the division determines that a person knowingly made a false report of child abuse or neglect; and makes technical and conforming changes.
Why I’m following this bill: DCFS is flooded every year with false reports of child abuse and neglect. Opportunistic, scheming parents make these false reports in an effort to gain an unfair advantage in child custody disputes, and it works wickedly and devastatingly well. Courts faced with an allegation of child abuse and/or neglect will frequently (typically, frankly) treat these allegations as true; “better safe than sorry,” the courts reason. This “abundance of caution” approach is not merely based in concern for the children; judges and commissioners don’t want their names in the news if they deny a child protective order based upon insufficient evidence, so they simply abuse and neglect the preponderance of evidence standard by granting the protective orders based upon the seriousness of the allegations and not the substance of the evidence. This results in a gross miscarriage of justice, destruction of good people’s reputations, and separation of good parents from children on false pretenses. It is long past time that these false reports come to the attention of law enforcement and to hold accountable those who make the false reports.
Utah Family Law, LC | divorceutah.com | 801-466-9277
