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…
In re B.J. - 2026 UT App 144 THE UTAH COURT OF APPEALS STATE OF UTAH, IN THE INTEREST OF B.J., C.J., AND S.W., PERSONS UNDER EIGHTEEN YEARS OF AGE.…
Executive Summary A law license is not a guarantee of your lawyer’s competence, preparation, judgment, or diligence. You should not assume the worst about your lawyer, but you should understand…
A hearing is coming up, and you are nervous. That is understandable. So you ask your lawyer: “Are we prepared for the hearing?” Before you ask that question, consider what…
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…
Johnson’s Law: The more confidently someone says, “AI will never replace X,” the more likely AI is to replace a frightening amount of X, and frighteningly fast. Johnson’s Corollary: AI…
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,…
Nobody has any business demanding perfection from judges, commissioners, lawyers, guardians ad litem, custody evaluators, therapists, or court clerks. These are human beings doing difficult work, often under time pressure,…
2026 UT App 141 THE UTAH COURT OF APPEALS EMILY CURTIS BONHAM, Appellee, v. BRANDON REYNOLDS BONHAM, Appellant. Opinion No. 20240597-CA Filed September 11, 2026 Third District Court, Salt Lake…
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…
2026 UT App 131 THE UTAH COURT OF APPEALS CHARLES DAHL, Appellee, v. KIM DAHL, Appellant. Opinion No. 20240740-CA Filed August 27, 2026 Fourth District Court, Provo Department The Honorable…
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…
Utah has enacted a meaningful improvement in access to court proceedings. Beginning January 1, 2027, Utah Code § 78A-1-203 will require an audio recording of each public court proceeding in…
Most parents assume child support stops the moment a child turns 18. In Utah, that assumption is wrong more often than it's right. High school graduation timing controls the termination…
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…
Utah's entire system for dividing property, setting alimony, and calculating child support runs on one assumption: both parties are telling the truth about their finances. When that assumption breaks down,…
Signing Form I-864 is a life-altering federal commitment. A Utah divorce decree court cannot terminate your obligation to support an immigrant ex-spouse, and ordinary prenuptial agreements and alimony waivers generally will…
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…
Utah's state court rules still prohibit litigants and attorneys from making their own audio recordings of court proceedings, even when a proceeding is open to the public and no legitimate…
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…
Bluffdale City v. Verive - 2026 UT App 101 THE UTAH COURT OF APPEALS BLUFFDALE CITY, Appellee, v. AARON VERIVE, Appellant. Opinion No. 20250757-CA Filed July 2, 2026 Third District…
Paulson v. Paulson - 2026 UT App 108 THE UTAH COURT OF APPEALS TRISHNA PAULSON, Appellee, v. CHRISTOPHER PAULSON, Appellant. Opinion No. 20220914-CA Filed July 16, 2026 Fourth District Court,…
Schmidt v. Schmidt - 2026 UT App 98 THE UTAH COURT OF APPEALS STEPHEN EDWARD SCHMIDT, Appellant, v. ANGELA SCHMIDT, Appellee. Opinion No. 20240759-CA Filed July 2, 2026 Third District…
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 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…
Christensen v. Christensen - 2026 UT App 104 THE UTAH COURT OF APPEALS JEFFREY CHRISTENSEN, Appellant, v. COURTNEY JESSICA CHRISTENSEN, Appellee. Opinion No. 20240810-CA Filed July 9, 2026 Third District…
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…
A low evidentiary burden is still a burden. That should be obvious. In Utah temporary protective order practice, however, it is often treated as optional. The preponderance of the evidence…
Few legal proceedings can rearrange a person’s life as quickly as an ex parte protective order. A judge can remove someone from the family home, restrict contact with children, limit access to…
This post is a companion to The Bloodletting of Family Law. That post diagnosed a system that mistakes itself for the cure. This one is about the cure the system…
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…
If you are in a child custody dispute and the court appoints a "guardian ad litem," it sounds reassuring. A lawyer appointed for the child? What could there be not…
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…
New ideas are rarely adopted by the average person first. That is a useful point Seth Godin recently made in his blog recently. When you ask ordinary people whether they like a…
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…