Executive Summary: Most divorce cases are not damaged because clients lack legal knowledge. They are damaged by avoidable mistakes in judgment: hiding bad facts, treating suspicion as proof, creating damaging…
"Mom, why are you only setting one place for dinner tonight?" "Because your dinner’s at Dad's house tonight. It's your night with him tonight, and I know he's got dinner…
A parent tells the police that the other parent assaulted her. An officer responds, interviews people at the scene, and arrests the accused parent. Weeks later, the parties are in…
"Why hasn't your son been to his father's home since March?" "He's sixteen. I can't make him." Sometimes that answer is true. Sometimes it's the end of a long, ugly…
Suppose you are asking for joint or equal physical child custody. The other parent opposes it. Why not ask the court to put your proposed schedule into effect temporarily so…
Summary. Family law increasingly describes ordinary misconduct in clinical terms. Selfishness becomes narcissism, and disagreement becomes gaslighting. When amateur psychology complicates a child custody dispute, courts and lawyers often respond…
Executive Summary: I draft legal documents the way a tailor fits a suit. I start with a proven structure, show the client an actual draft, and then adjust the approach,…
Disraeli said never apologize for feeling, because to do so is to apologize for truth. He was right, and Utah family law should take him seriously. A parent's fear for…
The Lindsay Clancy murder trial is about as far removed from an ordinary Utah divorce case as one can imagine. Clancy admitted killing her three young children in Massachusetts in…
There is a powerful argument for caution in family court, and it deserves to be taken seriously. When a judge or commissioner is confronted with an allegation that a parent…
Utah Courts Should Stop Paying an Intermediary to Tell the Factfinder What the Factfinder Can Hear Directly When a child's wishes, concerns, experiences, or perceptions matter in a Utah child…
2026 UT App 130 THE UTAH COURT OF APPEALS JUAN MIGUEL GUANUNA, Appellant, v. LINDSEY R. SAWATZKI AND JONATHAN C. SAWATZKI, Appellees. Opinion No. 20240191-CA Filed August 20, 2026 Third…
It often begins with a request that sounds perfectly reasonable. “We need some space.” “The fighting isn’t good for the kids.” “Why don’t you stay somewhere else for a while…
There is a ritual that plays out with remarkable regularity in Utah family court proceedings. A divorce becomes ugly. A parent is angry. A child is anxious. Communication deteriorates. Someone…
What “Special Training” Does a Judge Really Need to Talk to a Child? In Utah child custody disputes, one of the stock objections to having a judge interview a child…
One of the strangest objections to judges interviewing children in child custody disputes is that the interview might make the child anxious. Of course it might. The child’s parents are…
Mental-health awareness has helped people recognize genuine illness, obtain treatment, and speak about suffering without shame. That is real progress. But family law increasingly reveals the other side of the…
Summary: 1. Proposed paragraph (b)(2) applies to judicial interviews substantially the same restrictive threshold the Legislature imposed on compelled child testimony. 2. Concerns about litigation abuse and judicial workload justify…
Here is the objection this post is going to draw, so I deal with it directly instead of dodging it: raising questions about the reliability of memory sounds like it's…
A fit parent is awarded equal custody of two teenagers. Nothing in the record suggests that parent is dangerous, neglectful, or unfit—the court has already said so. A few months…
I recently encountered a Facebook Reel that is funnier—and probably truer—than many people will be comfortable admitting. Watch the original Reel here. The Reel’s creator identifies what she calls the…
Judge Kasey Wright deserves more credit than ridicule for refusing to pretend that chronic triage is competent judging. On July 13, 2026, Utah Fourth Judicial District Judge Kasey Wright submitted…
Judges in child custody disputes should hear from children more often. A lot more often. It should be routine, the presumptive course, the default. Not because children should decide custody…
At a recent hearing, a commissioner explained why she was appointing a private guardian ad litem instead of interviewing the child herself: "Given the age of the child, the statutory…
Christine Miller recently made a point about family court that deserves more attention: the appearance of independent professional agreement where no genuine independence exists. When a court appoints a private guardian…
A fit parent is awarded equal custody of two teenagers. Nothing in the record suggests he's dangerous, neglectful, or unfit—the court has already said so. A few months in, the…
“A woman's greatest strength [in divorce court] is her ability to be a victim.” It’s a statement that immediately makes people boil over—either in furious agreement or absolute outrage. But…
A recent podcast clip I saw this week made a deliberately provocative claim: “A woman’s greatest strength is her ability to be a victim.” Taken literally, the statement is too…
Child Custody Defiance Should Not Cost a Fit Parent Both the Children and More Money Suppose a court orders equal custody. Both parents are fit. One parent is ready, willing,…
One of the most complex, high-stakes scenarios occurs when federal immigration policies collide head-on with state domestic relations law. Under the federal Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), a non-citizen spouse…
Anyone who practices Utah family law has watched it happen. A child custody dispute is going badly for one parent, or hasn't started yet, and a protective order petition appears.…
A temporary protective order should do one thing well: protect against the danger actually alleged and shown by nothing less than a preponderance of the evidence. It should not become…
For centuries, physicians bled their patients and called it medicine. The patients got weaker; the doctors, confident in their training, prescribed more bleeding. Medicine now has a name for harm…
Designing divorce and custody settlements that resist gaming Most child custody disputes — and most of the financial fights that ride alongside them — run on bad incentives. The system…
I don’t have all the facts about this. None of us do at this point. And what facts we have may not even be fully “factual,” but we’ve seen this…
When a parent isn't active in a child's life, most people think they already know why. He must not care. She must have checked out. He must have wanted something…
Utah grandparent visitation rights can be court-ordered, but they are hard to win. A grandparent can ask a Utah court for visitation, but Utah law starts with a strong presumption in…
Few child custody disputes create more uncertainty than relocation. A parent may wantto move for a new job, remarriage, school, lower housing costs, or to be closer to family.Those reasons…
When parents separate or divorce, one of the most important questions is how custody of their children will be determined. Many parents enter the process believing the court will automatically…
In re A.H., 2026 UT App 88 THE UTAH COURT OF APPEALS STATE OF UTAH, IN THE INTEREST OF A.H., J.H., J.H., L.H., N.H., S.H., AND E.H., PERSONS UNDER EIGHTEEN…
Not every Utah parent is subject to the default parent-time schedules found in Utah Code §§ 81-9-302 and 81-9-303. Many parents operate under customized custody and parent-time provisions created by agreement or court…
Parenting apps are now everywhere in modern child custody disputes. Lawyers recommend them. Parenting coordinators recommend them. Guardians ad litem recommend them. Courts sometimes order them. And the companies behind…
A growing number of divorcing and unmarried parents walk into consultations convinced that Utah law now requires “50/50 (equal) child custody.” Some are absolutely certain of it. They heard it…
ABSTRACT: Vague parenting plans built around “reasonable parent-time” often create more conflict, not less. When schedules, holidays, exchanges, and responsibilities are left undefined, parents frequently end up arguing about expectations…
One of the most common mistakes parents make in Utah child custody disputes is assuming that a “custom-tailored” holiday schedule must automatically be better than Utah’s standard statutory holiday parent-time…
If you’re dealing with a divorce or a child custody dispute, there’s something you need to understand early: This is not just your case. That’s not rhetoric. It’s how the…
You’re sitting there with a domestic violence (DV) criminal charge hanging over your head. And you’re innocent. Yet you’re scared. You're distressed. You’re tired. You want it over. Then comes the…
This question is more common than you might think. Some may be in this situation: “I want custody for stability.” “I need custody because it affects support.” “I’m the better…
This series has examined a focused procedural question: whether interviews with children in custody disputes should be preserved through authenticated contemporaneous verbatim record via unedited audio-visual capture. The discussion has…
Legal systems evolve. Practices that function adequately become routine. Routine hardens into assumption. Over time, assumption begins to resemble necessity. Unrecorded child interviews in custody and parent-time cases appear to…