Utah Courts have been offering a Divorce Education for Children class for several years now.  The class is offered to assist children impacted b y divorce.  The class helps to identify feelings common to children in divorce situations, while teaching the children how to communicate their feelings to their parents.  A mental health professional teaches the class and is assisted by a state court commissioner.  Parents and children both report good things about the class and the impact it has on the children in everyday behavior.  The class is open to children ages 9 to 12 (3rd through 6th grades) whose parents are divorced already or are currently divorcing.  The class is free of charge and is he,d at the Scott M. Matheson Courthouse in Salt Lake City.  The class is from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. on select Saturdays, and 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on select Mondays.  Pre-registration for the class is required.  The upcoming schedule is as follows:

• Monday, October 4
• Saturday, October 23
• Saturday, November 13
• Monday, November 22
• Saturday, December 4
• Monday, December 13

Please contact Michelle Glaittli at 801-578-3897 or go to the courts website.

In 2010, both the Fourth of July holiday and the Utah Pioneer Day holiday, on July 24th, fall on the weekend but courts and some places of business are closed on July 5th and July 23rd because of these holidays.  This is enough to cause parents to argue about what the holiday actually means when they look at their parent-time.

All we can do is direct parents to Utah Code Annotated Section 30-3-35 (2)(e), which reads as follows: (more…)

The Utah Courts’ website has a “Frequently Asked Questions” section about getting a divorce in Utah.  Click here for that information.

Some of the information is helpful but a lot of it can be misleading to a person who has no experience or legal training.  For example, under the question about relocation, the site says, “A custodial parent usually is not prohibited from leaving the state with the children.”  In our experience, this is far from the reality of the situation.  We have litigated many cases and even gone to trial on the issue of relocation and the courts have very rarely permitted relocation of the children even when the move would have been with a parent who had sole or primary physical custody.  The courts have often stated that they cannot, and will not, prohibit the custodial parent from moving and they can provide extensive parent-time to that parent, but generally the courts side with the custody evaluator and custody evaluators in Utah have often taken the position that a move is not in the child’s best interest.  On the other hand, relocation certainly has also been permitted in other cases.  This issue usually requires a custody evaluation and can be very litigated and complex.

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