Utah House Bill 71 passed and has been signed by the Govenor.  This bill makes a number of changes to standard parent-time provisions.  The changes are effective as of May 5, 2008.  The bulk of significant changes relate to the holiday rotation being used by many co-parents in divorce and paternity cases.

This bill is particuarly important for parties who have a court order or decree that simply references any of the following Utah Code Ann. sections:

• 30-3-33, the advisory co-parenting guidelines
• 30-3-35, standard minimum parent-time for children over 5
• 30-3-35.5, standard minimum parent-time for children under 5  
• 30-3-37, standard minimum parent-time if parent relocates more than 150 miles

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Though we are loath to put words in the mouth’s of others, an issue has arisen for which we would like some clarification.  In one of our cases, opposing counsel recently told Melinda B. Call, of Long Okura P.C., that Commissioner Michael Evans in Utah Third District Court had been heard to recommend (in a different case) that child support be paid by the 1st of the month and pointed to Utah Code as support for that due date.  Opposing counsel said that he heard Commissioner Evans say that the law had changed in 2006 that made child support due on the first of each month, rather than being due 1/2 on the 5th and 1/2 on the 20th of each month.

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This entry provides the status of family-law-related bills presented in the Utah Spring Legislative Session.

Thanks very much to Stewart Ralphs , Director of Legal Aid Society, and to the Utah Bar Family Law Section Executive Committe for their efforts in coordinating, organizing, summarizing, and disseminating this information.

Below is a summary of the bills and status. Here is a link to the Utah government site with all the content and status of all of this session’s bills.

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