Divorce ● Paternity ● Custody and Visitation
In today's world divorce and paternity cases seem to have become commonplace.
That perception belies the devastation and life-long consequences a divorce
can have in your own life. It is imperative to make sure that your case is
handled appropriately. There are no second chances.
Divorce cases deal with the dissolution of a marriage, the
custody of children, and the division of financial assets and liabilities
including ongoing support.
Paternity cases deal with the determination of parentage and
the custody of the children. No financial issues other than child support are
addressed even if the couple lived together and had joint assets and debts.
Sometimes people try to get divorced when there was never a marriage. This may
be desirable so that issues such as division of assets and liabilities, as
well as a determination of alimony, may be included. In order to do this the
person must first establish a common-law marriage, which can
then allow for a divorce. Contrary to popular belief, common-law marriage is
not dependant upon the time living together. There are very specific criteria
to establish a common-law marriage in Utah and it can be a very technical
area of law.
In some cases, when there is no marriage and paternity has already been
established, a court case is brought solely to address the issues of
custody, visitation, and support.
Custody: When children are involved, the overriding issue
is their custody. Custody determinations can range from one parent having
the children all the time and the other parent never seeing them to a
joint physical custody arrangement where both parents see the children
frequently, sometimes every day. Custody determinations also include the
sharing of information and decision making for the children, especially
regarding healthcare, extracurricular activities, religious upbringing
and education. Courts prefer the division of these important
responsibilities to be determined by the parents. Where the parents cannot
agree, the court will make decisions. Typically the court, if required
to make a decision, will award one parent custody and the other standard,
statutory parent time.
Click here
for a copy of the statutory schedule. Courts will often order a custody
evaluation by a mental health professional, at the expense of the parties,
to help with this decision.
Custody and visitation (currently referred to as
parent time) can be modified by future court orders
if certain criteria are met and the court determines that the modification
is in the best interests of the children. Modifications are much more
difficult to obtain than the original court order. You should never agree
to entry of a decree of custody or visitation with the idea that you
will go back to court later and modify it. Contrary to popular belief,
children in Utah do not get to choose where they live at any age under
eighteen.
Divorce Classes: When parents of children are getting
divorced they are required to go to class about how the divorce may
affect their children. More information can be found at
http://www.utcourts.gov/specproj/dived.htm.
This is not required in a paternity case.
Support: When there are children involved, all cases
include determinations of child support, health insurrance for the
children, the payment of uninsured medical and dental expenses, daycare,
and tax benefits. Much of this is controlled by statute and you should
not expect the court to deviate from the statute or to make an award
that is contrary to the statute. Child support may be collected by the
Office of Recovery Services (ORS) whether or not
payment has ever been delinquent. Alimony may only
be awarded in the case of a divorce. Unlike child support, there are
no statutory tables to calculate alimony. It depends on a case by case
analysis and is extremely fact specific.
Property and Debt: In the case of a divorce the basic
rule is x/2 where x = everything the couple have acquired during the
course of their marriage. Under this formula it is common to back out
of the equation any property that either party brought into the marriage
and any inheritance or settlement received during the marriage and
maintained as separate property. To every rule there
are various exceptions.
Because the outcome of your case will affect the rest of your day-to-day
life, it is important to have an experienced attorney. Call
Steve Buhler at 801-964-6901 to discuss your situation, or contact us at
sjblawyer@aol.com.
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