Child Support
Residency Requirements and Grounds for Divorce
Either you or your spouse must be a Utah resident for three months before filing for divorce. You also need three months of residency in the county where you plan to file your complaint for divorce.
A divorce case starts when a spouse files a complaint in the proper district court. There's a 90-day waiting period after you file before the court will grant a divorce.
You may be granted a divorce based on the following no-fault grounds of irreconcilable differences or if you're legally separated and haven't lived together for three years.
Other grounds include:
- Impotence
- Adultery
- Conviction of a felony
- Willful desertion for one year
- Willful neglect by not providing for common necessaries of life
- Habitual drunkenness
- Conviction of a felony
- Cruel and inhuman treatment
- Incurable insanity
Dividing the Property
Utah is an "equitable distribution" state, which means that all of each spouse's property will be divided equitably by the court. The court will determine which spouse is responsible for the payment of joint debts, obligations or liabilities of the spouses arising during the marriage.
Be prepared with information on your property, including when you purchased it, an estimate of value, and details such as account numbers, serial numbers and so forth. You'll be ready to meet with a Utah divorce lawyer and it can save you a lot of time and money.
Alimony
The court can order alimony to either spouse. Factors in making an alimony award include:
- Financial condition and needs of the recipient
- Recipient's earning capacity and ability to produce income
- Ability of the paying spouse to provide support
- Marriage length
- Whether recipient spouse has custody of minor children requiring support
- Whether recipient spouse worked in a business owned or operated by the payor spouse
- Whether recipient spouse directly contributed to any increase in the payor spouse's skill by paying for education, or allowed payor spouse to go to school during the marriage
- Marital fault
- Standard of living at time of separation
- Other relevant factors
Generally, the court will not award alimony for a period that is longer than the marriage existed. Alimony ends upon remarriage, cohabitation or death of the recipient former spouse.
Child Custody and Visitation
The court has wide discretion in granting child custody awards and visitation. The court decides based on the best interest of the child and looks at these factors:
- Past conduct and moral standards of the parents
- Which parent is likely to act in the best interest of the child
- Which parent is most likely to support the child's relationship with the other parent
- Whether the physical, psychological and emotional needs and development of the child is best served by sole or joint custody
- Ability of parents to put their child first and act in his best interest
- Whether both parents participated in raising the child before divorce
- Geographical proximity of homes of parents
- Preference of the child if he's mature enough to have an intelligent preference
- Maturity of parents
- Past and present ability of parents to cooperate with each other
- Any history of child or spouse abuse
- Any other relevant factors
Utah has advisory visitation guidelines. The court also considers the best interest of the child when determining parent-time rights of parents and visitation rights of grandparents and other immediate family members.
Child Support
Either parent or both parents may be ordered to provide child support, including medical and dental expenses and health insurance. A child support calculator can help you figure out the support amount. The court may order the non-custodial parent to provide child care while the custodial parent is at work or training. The amount is based on state child support guidelines, which are presumed to be correct unless evidence shows that amount would be unjust or inappropriate in a given case.
The court will look at the following factors when considering whether or not to award a support amount that is outside of the guidelines:
- Standard of living and situation of the parents
- Relative wealth and income of the parents
- Earning abilities of the parents
- Needs of the parents and the child
- Ages of the parents and the child
- Responsibilities of the parents for the support of others
Child support may be modified if there is a substantial change of circumstances, such as a parent's change in income due to job loss or medical expenses.
Questions for Your Attorney