You & your spouse can make your own agreement, and it must be submitted to the court for approval. Without a parental agreement, Utah laws provide a guideline, or mathematical formula. The courts calculate a parent's child support obligation using three components: Base child support, medical care and child-care expenses.

You are describing someone acting pro se or for themselves. If you want to process a simple divorce, see the link near the top of this page that says: "Utah Low Income Self Help"and once there look for a link that reads: Online Court Assistance Program. You should be good to go from there.

The amount of time will depend on how complex your divorce is, what the court docket looks like (full-not full) and and how many unresolved issues you and your spouse have. Plan on just a few months to years. In each divorce decree, the court will include: an order assigning responsibility for the payment of reasonable and necessary medical and dental expenses of the dependent children; 2.) if coverage is or becomes available at a reasonable cost, an order requiring the purchase and maintenance of appropriate health, hospital, and dental care insurance for the dependent children; 3.) an order specifying which party is responsible for the payment of joint debts, obligations, or liabilities of the parties contracted or incurred during marriage; 4.) an order requiring the parties to notify respective creditors or obligees, regarding the court's division of debts, obligations, or liabilities and regarding the parties' separate, current addresses; 5.) provisions for the enforcement of these orders; and 6.) provisions for income withholding. A decree of divorce can be granted immediately if the parties have reached an agreement and, if they have minor children, if they have both attended the Divorce Education and Divorce Orientation classes. If parties do not have minor children, Utah law requires a 90-day waiting period, which may be waived for good cause.

UT divorce laws require that courts not be gender-biased when determining these issues. The truth is that most awards go to Mothers because the near universal belief by the judiciary that kids are better off with their Mothers. Some considerations might include: 1. the past conduct and demonstrated moral standards of each of the parties; 2. which parent is most likely to act in the best interest of the child, including allowing the child frequent and continuing contact with the non custodial parent; 3. The court will, in every case, consider joint custody but may award any form of custody which is determined to be in the best interest of the child, 4. The desires of a child 16 years of age or older shall be given added weight, but is not the single controlling factor and 5. In awarding custody, the court shall consider which parent is most likely to act in the best interests of the child, including allowing the child frequent and continuing contact with the non custodial parent as the court finds appropriate. In the end, the primary caretaker gets custody.

The court may order a party to provide money, during the pendency of the action, for the separate support and maintenance of the other party and of any children in the custody of the other party. The court will consider at least the following factors in determining alimony: 1. the financial condition and needs of the recipient spouse; 2. the recipient's earning capacity or ability to produce income; 3. the ability of the payer spouse to provide support; 4. the length of the marriage; 5. whether the recipient spouse has custody of minor children requiring support; 6. whether the recipient spouse worked in a business owned or operated by the payer spouse; and 7. whether the recipient spouse directly contributed to any increase in the payer spouse's skill by paying for education received by the payer spouse or allowing the payer spouse to attend school during the marriage.

A divorce terminates a legal condition (marriage) and resolves all legal issues around the marriage. Those issues can include child or spousal support, and division of marital assets. An annulment is the court’s decree that the marriage was never valid. In other words annulment is the declaration that the marriage never took place.

There are grounds for annulment just like there are grounds for divorce. To receive an marital annulment, a marriage must fit the description of a void marriage or a voidable marriage. Grounds include entering a marriage by Fraud and Duress, Mental Illness, Bigamy, Impotency, and Consanguinity (marrying a relative too closely related.)

A void marriage is a type of marriage which is on its face unlawful under the laws of the jurisdiction where it is entered e.g. One or both of the parties are below the legal age to marry even with parental consent, The parties degrees of consanguinity are too close, for example, a brother and sister or a parent and a child, The form of the marriage is forbidden by statute (such as same-sex marriage, and bigamy (multiple marriages). A marriage, however, which can be canceled at the option of one of the parties is merely voidable, meaning it is subject to cancellation if contested in court.

Yes, it's true. There is established a mandatory marriage counseling course for divorcing parents. The mandatory course is designed to educate and sensitize divorcing parties to their children's needs both during and after the divorce process.

A separation of one kind or another allows the parties to live apart but remain legally married. The individuals' rights and duties to each other are determined in a Decree of Legal Separation which will cover custody and child support, spousal support, division of property, and payment of debts. A divorce ends the marriage and creates two single people while resolving the above issues. Either party may initiate a divorce after gaining a separation.

Yes, both Utah divorce laws and Federal statutes allow the petitions and will make visitation rulings if they are in the best interest of the child.

Yes, by all means. Either fashion a divorce settlement with your spouse, or the court will so so for you. If the court has to create the divorce settlement, it will do so based on being an equitable distribution state meaning that the court will endeavor to divide the marital property equitably but not necessarily evenly.

Factors considered can be: 1.) The financial condition and needs of the recipient spouse; 2.) The recipient's earning capacity or ability to produce income; 3.) The ability of the payer spouse to provide support; 4.) The length of the marriage; 5.) Whether the recipient spouse has custody of minor children requiring support; 6.) Whether the recipient spouse worked in a business owned or operated by the payer spouse; 7.) Whether the recipient spouse directly contributed to any increase in the payer spouse's skill by paying for education received by the payer spouse or allowing the payer spouse to attend school during the marriage, and 8.) The court may consider the fault of the parties in determining alimony.

At least one party must have been a resident of the county where the divorce was filed. for a minimum of three months immediately before filing the divorce petition. If there are children, generally the children must have resided in the state for a minimum of six months. To simplify divorce and custody proceedings, parents should wait until the children have lived within the state for six months before filing for divorce.