Utah State Law Library

The new Utah State Courts' web page on Modifying Parent-Time provides information about jurisdiction (does the court have legal authority to hear the case?), default judgments and the forms necessary to both request and respond to modifying parent-time.

Use these modification forms only if you already have an original order controlling parent-time. Note that if parents do not agree to a parent-time schedule, the legislature provides for minimum parent-time for both children under 5 and children 5 to 18 years of age.

If you need assistance filling out these forms, consider hiring an attorney or speaking to a lawyer at a free legal clinic.

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OCAP, the Online Court Assistance Program, offers an interactive electronic tool to prepare the documents needed for several types of civil actions in Utah's state courts. For example, among the existing programs are divorce, parentage, and guardianship of a minor child.

Now available are two new programs. One provides the court documents to try to obtain a protective order on behalf of a minor child. You can choose to use either OCAP or to download fill-in-the-blank forms already available on the court website.

OCAP's new enforcement of domestic orders system provides documents required to ask the court to enforce existing domestic orders. It offers help with preparing orders to show cause, responses to orders to show cause, registrations of foreign orders, as well as several others.

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A parenting plan outlines how parents who are now living separately will raise their children. It encourages parents to think ahead about how they will make decisions and resolve disagreements. A parenting plan is required in Utah for shared parenting or custody arrangements and is permitted in other parenting arrangements approved by the court.

Parents in a domestic relations case must file a parenting plan whenever a party asks the court to create or change a shared parenting arrangement. Any arrangement other than full legal and physical custody held by one parent is a shared parenting arrangement.

Parenting plans are part of the Online Court Assistance Program for divorce or parentage actions. However, sometimes parents need to create a parenting plan on their own or are ordered to do so by the court. Now available on the court website is a stand-alone parenting plan form. Information about the legal requirements of a parenting plan and links to further resources are also available on the website.

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If you have a child support or child custody court order from another state and you want to either enforce or modify that order in Utah, you must first register that order with an appropriate Utah court. This process is often referred to as "registering a foreign order."

Instructions and forms to register foreign child support and child custody orders are now available on the Utah State Courts website at http://www.utcourts.gov/howto/family/foreign_order.

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Forms to ask the court to modify a child support order are now available on the Utah State Courts website at http://www.utcourts.gov/howto/family/modification/child_support/. The site also provides information on how to use the forms and how to calculate child support amounts.

For help with calculating child support, you can use the online calculator or stand-alone worksheets.

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Under Utah law, any interested adult may ask the Juvenile Court for an order of protection for a minor child less than 18 years of age if that adult believes the child is being physically or sexually abused or is at imminent risk of harm and in need of protection. Children who are at least 16 years old can apply on their own for an order of protection using adult protective order forms and filing them in the DIstrict Court.

Child protective order forms have been updated recently and are now available on the court website. One important addition is the Service Assistance Form found on the first page of the Verified Petition. This form provides law enforcement with information about the parties and is particularly useful in helping find a respondent to serve the court papers on him or her. The information on the Service Assistance Form is not part of the court public file and is provided only to law enforcement.

Information about protective orders is available in English and Spanish.

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You’ve won your case ... but how do you get your money?

Unfortunately, winning your case is only one step in the process, and collecting the judgment can be more difficult than winning it. If you are lucky the party will pay the judgment. Otherwise, you may have to go back to court to try to get the party to pay what s/he now owes you.

The court does not collect the judgment for you, but does provide tools to help you collect the judgment. Our Collecting a Judgment web page describes the different ways you can collect a judgment, such as a Writ of Execution or a Writ of Garnishment, as well as the process for finding out about the debtor's assets. That process is called a "supplemental proceeding" or "supp order."

The person to whom the judgment is owed is the creditor. The person who owes the judgment is the debtor. The creditor has eight years to collect a judgment from the debtor. (Utah Code Ann. §78B-2-311).

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Planning ahead for physical and mental incapacity is an important issue for all of us. Utah law provides suggested forms and instructions for advance health care directives and the appointment of an agent to make health care decisions for an adult who loses the capacity to communicate. You can link to Utah’s forms and more information at http://aging.utah.edu/utah_coa/directives/ , or directly from the court website at http://www.utcourts.gov/howto/seniors/#Advance.

The Utah Division of Aging and Adult Services provides information and forms about advance health care decision making including a very useful Tool Kit that helps people think through their wishes and how to express them in meaningful ways. Go to http://www.hsdaas.utah.gov/advance_directives.htm

Utah law also provides for a mental health directive to help people with mental illness plan ahead for such tough decisions as commitment to treatment and medications. Go to more information on the Nami Utah Web site at http://www.namiut.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=62&Itemid=52, or view Utah’s laws and sample Declaration for Mental Health Treatment form at Utah Code 62A-15-1001 to 1004, http://le.utah.gov/UtahCode/section.jsp?code=62A-15.

On the national front, the Secretary of Health and Human Services sent a comprehensive report to Congress this week entitled “Advance Directives and Advance Care Planning.” The report, requested by Congress in 2006, focuses on (1) the best ways to promote the use of advance directives and advance care planning among competent adults as a way to specify their wishes about end-of-life care; and (2) addressing the needs of persons with disabilities with respect to advance directives. You can link to the report at http://aspe.hhs.gov/daltcp/reports/2008/ADCongRpt.htm. It includes an excellent literature review on every aspect of advance care planning, analyses of key ethical and legal issues, and a discussion of opportunities to enhance the effectiveness of advance care planning and advance directives.
The report is particularly timely as health care reform is in the public policy forefront, and several bills are pending in Congress regarding advance care planning and improving care near the end of life.

Posted by Mary Jane Ciccarello at 03:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Utah law requires divorcing parents to attend a divorce orientation class and a divorce education class before the judge will sign a divorce decree.

Attendance of these classes can be waived by the judge in some circumstances. Information and all the forms needed to ask the judge to waive the required classes are now available on the court web page on divorce. The forms are also found in the online divorce program (OCAP).

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Utah law requires that parties wait 90 days after filing a divorce petition before a divorce decree can be granted. This waiting period can be waived by the court for good cause. And, the waiting period does not apply to parents who attend the Divorce Education and Divorce Orientation classes.

The forms to ask the court to waive the waiting period are now available for easy download on the court web page on divorce. In addition, forms are now available to oppose the waiver of the waiting period. The waiver forms may also be found in the online divorce program (OCAP).

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There's a new web page explaining filing fees and fee waivers. All forms required for asking the court to waive filing fees are available on this page as well.

There are usually fees that you must pay whenever you start a lawsuit by filing a complaint or petition. You can ask the judge to waive the fees but you must prove to the judge that you cannot pay them.

You can also link to the fee waiver web page and forms by going to "Forms and Instructions" on the Self-Help Resources webpage.

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There's a new Changing Lawyers web page on the court's website that explains the issues surrounding the withdrawal of an attorney, substitution of counsel or notice of appearance, and provides forms for these situations.

This page is linked from our Finding Legal Help page, which provides a number of suggestions for ways to deal with legal issues.

Posted by Jessica Van Buren at 01:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

There's a new Proof of Service form available on the Utah State Courts' website. It's linked from our Service page, which is one of many resources you can access from the Self-Help Resources page.

Another useful service-related resource is our Finding People for Service of Process page, which offers nearly two dozen suggestions for ways to find people to notify them about a lawsuit filed against them.

Posted by Jessica Van Buren at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

There's a new page on the Utah State Courts' website which provides information about answering a complaint or petition and an Answer form for civil matters.

This is one of many resources you can access from the Self-Help Resources page.

Posted by Jessica Van Buren at 07:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Utah State Courts webpage on Small Claims has been updated. The new page contains loads of information about handling small claims cases and forms for all aspects of a small claims matter.

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Utah law recognizes the importance of the parent-child relationship. However, sometimes it may be in the best interests of a child for the parent's rights to be terminated. In some cases, the State of Utah or some other party may ask the court to terminate a parent's rights. Or, the parent may want to terminate his or her own rights.

Utah law allows a parent to voluntarily relinquish--or give up-- his or her parental rights. There is a specific court procedure for this. Information and forms for this procedure are now available on the court website.

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What if you are in the middle of a divorce action but need child support now?

Parties sometimes need to have temporary orders in place while settling their disputes.

Temporary orders govern child custody and support, parent time, property distribution and other matters during the divorce or parentage proceedings. The parties must follow the temporary orders until they are changed or until final judgment in the case.

Checklists and forms for the court process of obtaining temporary orders are now available on the court website.

Posted by Mary Jane Ciccarello at 04:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Utah law allows a parent to temporarily delegate legal authority of a minor child by completing a power of attorney form. A court-appointed guardian can delegate authority over a protected person in the same way. The delegation can last up to six months at a time. To delegate authority, the parent or guardian must complete a power of attorney form.

Information about the delegation of powers, a checklist, a power of attorney form, and a form for the revocation of the power of attorney are now available on the court website.

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It's tax season! Did you know that all federal and Utah tax forms can be found online?

The IRS has centralized all federal tax forms and publications on their website. You can search for forms or publications by number or title.

Individual Utah State income tax forms are posted on the Utah State Tax Commission's website. This site also includes tax forms for businesses and corporate income taxes.

Need help filling out your tax forms? Utah's free Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program offers tax income preparation at locations statewide. To find out if you're eligible for free income tax preparation services, call 211.

Posted by Joanne Gialelis at 09:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)