In every custody court order both Physical and Legal custody should be addressed. In Utah, physical custody is tracked by where the child spends the night. Overnights are what matter. If you care for a child from 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM EVERYDAY of the year but each night at 10:00 p.m. you send the child to the other party to sleep, then you had parent-time for the day but this parent-time does not mean what you have physical custody of child. In this example, the parent who has the child will the child sleeps would have SOLE physical custody of the child.

A designation of having Legal Custody over a child means that the party has the decision making power over aspects of the child’s life such as religion, education, medical treatment, extracurricular activities, etc.

Below are the 5 basic custody designations that a party could have. Each parent should have both a physical and legal custody designation:

(more…)

To calculate Child Support payments you will need:

• Your last paycheck stub, W-2s, or an estimate of your monthly gross income.
• Your spouse’s last paycheck stub, W-2s, or an estimate of your spouses’s monthly gross income.
• The combined income table at the Utah.gov site
• The appropriate child support worksheet.

In Utah, child support is calculated using a child support worksheet. There are three different child support worksheets. Below you will determine which worksheet you should use.

(more…)

Here are some terms and definitions commonly used in Utah Family Law cases:

Answer and Counterclaim
Within 20 days (30 days if Respondent lives out of state) of service or signing acceptance of the Petition, the Respondent must file an Answer to the Petition, agreeing and disagreeing with the contents of the Petition. Respondent usually Counterclaims, which means he or she asks for a different resolution of issues in the divorce than what Petitioner asked.

(more…)