UTAH DIVORCE MADE EASY. DOCUMENTS DONE RIGHT!
UTAH 3STEPDIVORCE TM - KEEPING YOUR UNCONTESTED DIVORCE SIMPLE
This easy to use online divorce is a "do it yourself (without a lawyer)" solution for any uncontested divorce (with or without children) that will be filed in the state of Utah. An uncontested Utah divorce is one in which you and your spouse are in agreement and eliminates the stress and expense of settling your divorce in court.
With 3StepDivorce TM you can complete and print your Utah divorce forms (including a marital settlement agreement) instantly. Then, follow our step-by-step filing procedures to file your own divorce in Utah in a timely, professional, and hassle free fashion. The online software is designed to give you full control of your divorce and also avoids the use of third party data entry, thus helping protect your personal information and privacy. |
Frequently asked questions
We provide unlimited support for all of our customers through our Utah Online Divorce Help Center. We take great pride in being able to respond to our customers in a "human" to "human" approach (as you can see, we do not hide our toll free number (888) 665-6782). We understand the need a customer may have to talk to a person rather than the typical automated voice or e-mail support system. Please keep in mind that we are not lawyers and we do not give out legal advice. If you need legal advice regarding your uncontested divorce in Utah, we recommend that you contact a lawyer in your area.
In almost all cases, you file for a divorce in the state where you reside. This means that if you are a resident of Utah, you file in Utah and are governed by Utah's divorce laws even if you were married, for example, in California.
You must meet Utah's residency requirement for a Utah court to have jurisdiction over your divorce.
Utah 3StepDivorce™ works as long as both you and your spouse agree about everything, and both of you are willing to sign the divorce paperwork.
You do not have to sign the papers together, at the same time and place, but the Utah 3StepDivorce™ requires both spouses to sign.
It sure does. The Utah 3StepDivorce™ allows you to address all issues regarding children, including but not limited to, physical and legal custody, visitation and support, care, health insurance and tax deductions.
Thousands of people divorce in Utah every year without hiring a lawyer.
When spouses cannot agree about the terms and conditions of their divorce, they sometimes end up in court where a judge makes decisions for them. This is called a contested divorce, and hiring a lawyer is a good idea in this case.
When a Utah divorce case is uncontested and both parties are willing to sign, (when you and you spouse agree about everything) filing your own divorce is a common choice in order to cut down legal expenses.
The residency requirements for a divorce in Utah are as follows:
Either the Petitioner or the Respondent must be a bona fide resident of Utah for three months and of the county of filing. This applies to members of the armed services who are stationed in Utah.
No hearing for the divorce may happen until 90 days have elapsed from the filing unless the court, "for good cause shown and set forth in the findings, otherwise orders." This 90-day provision does not apply in any case where both parties have completed the mandatory educational course for divorced parents.
Yes. The divorce paperwork requires a signed authentication that you have been a resident of Utah for at least the past three months.
This is a state law.
Signing false statements is perjury.
If the court requires proof for some reason, typically a Utah driver's license or state identification is sufficient. An affidavit of a corroborating witness testifying about your residency also works.
Your spouse does not need to live in Utah to use 3StepDivorce™. After you have printed all the divorce paperwork, you simply mail the documents to your spouse and he or she signs them. After your spouse returns them, you file in your local county court.
Very often divorcing spouses live in different states.
The grounds for divorce in Utah are as follows:
No Fault: a) irreconcilable differences of the marriage, b) husband and wife living separately under a decree of separate maintenance of any state for three consecutive months without cohabitation.
Fault: a) impotency of the Respondent at the time of the marriage, b) adultery committed by the Respondent subsequent to the marriage, c) willful desertion of the Petitioner by the Respondent for more than one year, d) willful neglect of the Respondent to provide for the Petitioner the common necessities of life, e) habitual drunkenness of the Respondent, f) conviction of Respondent of a felony, g) cruel treatment of the Petitioner by the Respondent causing injury or great mental distress to the Petitioner.
However, if a different ground is desired, our support team makes the changes upon request.
Once the divorce paperwork has been filed in court, it takes at least 90 days for a divorce to be final unless a party is exempt from the 90-day provision mentioned above. The start to finish time of the divorce may vary depending on the caseload of the court and the availability of judges to sign the final divorce papers.
3StepDivorce™ saves time because all lengthy delivery times are eliminated when you print your documents from your computer. You control revisions and reprintings as necessary.
In Utah, a divorce hearing is not typically required unless you and your spouse have children. If there are children involved, a short hearing, generally about 15 minutes, gives the court an opportunity to make certain that you understand the parameters of custody, visitation and support that are ordered as part of your divorce.
If there are no children, the process in very streamlined. Since you and your spouse are in agreement, there is nothing for the court to decide.
There is no mandatory waiting period is Utah.
Yes. 3StepDivorce™ includes a protocol for the wife to take back her former or birth name as part of the filing. It is easier to effect a name change during the divorce rather than after the divorce is finalized.
Separate and marital property and debt is identified and addressed in your 3StepDivorce™ account. A series of questions itemizes property and debt, dividing and allocating both according to what you and your spouse have agreed to. The answers become part of the divorce documents, so it is clear to you, your spouse and the court how assets and liabilities have been divided.
Yes. You answer a few questions dealing with individual retirement accounts. You have the option of waiving rights to each other's account(s), or dividing any marital portion of an account by a specific percentage or a dollar amount.
Once again, a few questions inside your account deal with the disposition of the marital home. All possible scenarios are covered -- sale, planned sale, transfer from one spouse to the other, and co-ownership.
A few questions in your account deal with temporary or permanent spousal support. Rights to spousal support may be waived, or a couple can agree to a specific amount for a set period of time. These questions define and limit the parameters of the desired spousal support, which often terminates upon remarriage or cohabitation.
Utah requires that a support order be put in place for all minor children.
3StepDivorce™ provides the Utah Child Support Guideline Worksheet, so you can easily calculate the state's recommendation for monthly support, but you have the option of taking these recommendations under advisement. The courts realize that you and your spouse know your situation better than they do, so they may approve any reasonable support amount, even if it is different from the one on the state worksheet.
We provide Utah Child Support Worksheets inside your account. These worksheets make it very easy to calculate a monthly support amount. The support calculation is based on a number of variables, but the primary one is income.
Once you have calculated the amount, you and your spouse decide if you want to deviate from it and the reasons for doing so.
Yes. Once you and your spouse agree to a monthly child support amount, a judge reviews your decision. He or she will accept it if it seems reasonable. However, if it seems too high or too low, the judge will want an explanation why the two of you came to amount so much at variance from the state guidelines. Your explanation and reasons for it determine whether or not the judge accepts your proposed child support amount.
Utah permits deviation from its child support guidelines "if the court finds sufficient evidence to rebut [the Utah Child Support] guidelines [by considering] all relevant factors, including but not limited to": a) the standard of living of the parties; b) the relative wealth and income of the parties; b) the ability of the obligee to earn, e) the ability of an incapacitated adult to earn, or other benefits received by the adult child on the adult child's behalf including Supplemental Security Income; f) the needs of the obligee, the obligor, and the child; g) the ages of the parties; and h) the responsibilities of the obligor and the obligee for the support of others.
Yes. Child support can be modified based on a change in circumstances. In Utah, a change in circumstances means "a significant change in circumstances," generally, changes "not considered when the original judgment was entered" that are "permanent and substantial" and/or "affect one's current standard of living."
Yes. Child custody arrangements can be modified when, for example, they break down because of the conduct of one of the former spouses.
Yes. The terms and conditions of both sole and joint/shared custody are defined by you and your spouse.
Yes. You can either use a standard schedule that we provide in your account, or you can use our option to customize your own.
You answer a few questions and your custody arrangements are prepared for you.
Yes. Some of the divorce papers need to be notarized. The step-by-step filing instructions explain who signs what and whether a particular document needs to be notarized. The documents requiring notarization contain notary clauses below individual signature lines.
No. If desired, each of you may sign and/or notarize a document at a different time and/or place.
As mentioned, very frequently spouses sign and notarize the documents at different times and places because they live apart in different states. This happens often, for example, when one of them has moved or is in the military.
In Utah, the divorce papers are filed in the District Court of the _______________, in and for ________________ County, which is the local county courthouse, where the Domestic Relations or Family Law department accepts the divorce filing. The divorce documents are submitted to the Clerk of the Courts. You pay a filing fee, and the clerk assigns the case a case number.
In Utah, the fee is about $157. If you want to know the exact amount, you can call the courthouse and ask.
Filing fees underwrite the cost of the court system, but in the case of indigent petitioners these fees may be waived.
Normally, an indigent petitioner completes a very short form at the time of filing. This form asks the court to waive the fees because of financial hardship.
Yes. If you have signed up but not filed any divorce papers, then nothing must be done. If you have initiated the action by filing the Petition for Divorce, your case can be dismissed by petitioning the court to do so. Normally, this can only be done by the filing spouse and must be done in writing.
Often the clerk of the court can help a person remove a case from the court docket.
The Utah 3StepDivorce™ includes the following documents:
- Utah Filing Instructions
- Cover Sheet for Civil Filing Actions
- Verified Petition for Divorce
- Acceptance of Service, Appearance, Consent and Waiver
- Marital Settlement Agreement
- Schedule for Visitation/Parenting Time of Minor Children (attach to MSA)
- Affidavit Regarding the Children
- Affidavit of Income Verification and Compliance with the Uniform Child Support Guidelines
- Child support Obligation Worksheet (Sole Custody)
- Child Support Obligation Worksheet (Joint Custody)
- Child Support Obligation Worksheet (Split Custody)
- Insurance Premium and Child Care Adjustment Worksheet
- Child Support Obligation Table
- Child Support Obligation Worksheet Required Location Information
- Motion fort Entry of Default Certificate
- Default Certificate
- Petitioner's Affidavit of Jurisdiction and Grounds for Divorce
- Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law
- Decree of Divorce and Judgment
- Notice to Submit for Entry of Default Decree of Divorce
- Certificate of Divorce. Dissolution of Marriage, or Annulment