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…
Special masters and parent coordinators sound like practical solutions to exhausting parenting disputes. When parents keep fighting over exchanges, expenses, holidays, phone calls, school issues, and extracurricular activities, the idea…
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…
That eagerness to cross the finish line can be so seductive in reaching a divorce settlement agreement. If the division of assets looks 50/50 on paper, it is easy to…
On the surface, family court looks like a place of reason. There are statutes, rules of evidence, financial declarations, parenting plans, sworn testimony, judicial findings, and orders written in the…
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…
A divorce decree is not a suggestion. It is not a handshake. It is not a rough outline of what the parties might do later if everyone feels cooperative. It…
Every courthouse hallway has its own atmosphere. People sit on benches waiting for decisions that may affect their children, property, liberty, safety, income, or reputation. Lawyers hurry between hearings. Witnesses…
One of the most common sources of conflict between co-parents is not just custody exchanges, holiday schedules, or even the monthly child support payment. Often, it is the steady stream…
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…
Family court is not ordinary litigation. In a business dispute, the parties may fight hard, settle, and never see each other again. In divorce and child custody disputes, the parties…
There is a basic principle at the heart of equity: where there is a legal wrong, there should be a remedy. But the inverse matters just as much: where there…
Many parents (I’d say even most parents) enter family court hoping someone will fix everything. Believing that: the judge will see through the lies. the custody evaluator will identify the…
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…
Some of the strongest child custody disputes are no longer fought primarily through parent-time schedules, exchange disputes, or even direct allegations of abuse. Increasingly, they are fought through institutions. Schools.…
The way divorce mediation is conducted in Utah is wildly overrated, yet that fact is one of the best kept secrets in the family law legal profession. To be clear,…
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…
In a Utah personal injury case, if a doctor testifies that a low-speed collision caused a traumatic brain injury, that opinion will usually face meaningful scrutiny under Rule 702 of…
Discover how Utah Code § 81-6-101 allows for child support to continue indefinitely for adult children with cognitive disabilities. Learn the legal standards for incapacity and how a Special Needs Trust can…
In a surprising number of child custody disputes, courts make major decisions based heavily on conversations nobody else gets to see or hear. A custody evaluator interviews the child privately.…
In many Utah divorce, alimony, and child support cases, you may not need to spend thousands of dollars on a vocational evaluator to prove earning capacity. Courts determined whether people…
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…
Deleting digital evidence during a Utah divorce can trigger sanctions, contempt findings, attorney fee awards, and devastating credibility problems. Learn how Utah courts treat destroyed evidence under URCP 26, 26.1,…
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…
Stephen Petro recently made a point that should be obvious, but in the heat of litigation, often isn’t: A “reasonable” answer is not the same thing as a correct one. A reasonable answer…
Good behavior in a marriage is often the wrong behavior in a divorce action (and vice versa) Divorce changes the rules midstream. That is the part most people don’t see…
When a $100,000 asset can become $1,000 before trial, valuation timing—not ownership—is the real fight. If you’re holding NFTs and heading into a divorce, understand this: the court does not…
Family law emergencies do not follow business hours. What you do—or fail to do—in the first moments of a crisis often dictates your success in court months later. CRITICAL: If you…
“Temporary orders” sound harmless. Interim. A placeholder until the whole case gets decided. That’s not how they function in the real world. In virtually every Utah divorce and child custody…
Mediation is supposed to be where divorce cases get resolved. And to be fair, a lot of them do. But a surprising number don’t. Not because one or both people…
Everyone in family law has heard the pitch: download a parenting app, pay a monthly fee, and suddenly your co-parenting problems become organized, documented, and “court-ready.” It sounds responsible. It…
When most people think about divorce, many may picture a courtroom, a judge, and a decision. But this process is a long, costly, and discouraging one. A typical contested divorce or…
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…
A few years ago, the concern was fake law; lawyers citing to AI-generated cases that didn’t exist. That already happened in Utah. See Garner v. Kadince. The next concern is worse:…
People hear “crypto” (cryptocurrency; Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc.) and assume “untraceable.” That assumption gets tested quickly in a divorce. In Utah divorce disputes over property division, cryptocurrency is treated like any…
The modern Utah home is a goldmine of digital data. In a divorce or child custody dispute, it often becomes something else: a surveillance system one spouse tries to weaponize…
There’s been (note the past tense) an assumption that creeps into a lot of divorce cases: If the evidence is important enough, the court will let it in. But in Prisbey v.…
Most people think settlement is where they finally get to ask for everything they want. It’s not. Settlement—especially in child custody disputes—is where you ask for what you could realistically…
The Missing Step Courts in child custody disputes routinely make determinations without ever hearing from the child directly—or even reviewing a complete and reliable record of someone who did. That…
When you are involved in a divorce, custody dispute, or protective order court case, the desire to talk about it can be strong. You may want advice, validation, or simply…
In Utah military divorces, TRICARE eligibility is governed by the rigid federal "20/20/20 rule," not state court discretion. This post breaks down the strict requirements for lifetime medical benefits, the…
I. The Illusion of Protection In Utah child custody disputes, courts have (but should not have) a choice: hear from the child directly or receive their life story through a…
In a Utah custody case, your conduct is not limited to what happens in your home—it extends to what you choose to share online. Social media is not personal or…
In Utah child custody and parent-time disputes, courts routinely defer to a familiar class of professionals: private guardians ad litem (PGALs) and custody evaluators. These professionals are held up as…