What is the Utah 90 Day Waiting Period?
Utah has an interesting law. It requires that divorcing couples wait 90 days before the divorce can become final. Up until this year the 90 day waiting period was kind of a suggestion, not really a hard and fast rule. In fact, parties would file a motion to waive the 90 day waiting period and they would nearly always be granted just because the parties wanted to get divorced earlier. If the divorce involved children the court would want the parties to do the divorce education class before waiving the 90 day period. For divorces that did not involve minor children the court would typically just waive the 90 day period if asked to do so.
This year the Utah Legislature put a kibosh on getting the 90 day period waived leaving as the only exception “extraordinary circumstances.” That is a very high standard of proof. When one thinks of extraordinary circumstances one should probably think about life or death situations, scenarios that may gravely affect someone’s health or mental well being, employment circumstances that could result in losing a job, etc.
How Do I Get the 90 Days Waived?
The procedure for getting the 90 days waived is to file a motion supported by a declaration/affidavit. The party who wants to get the 90 day period waived must provide proof of extraordinary circumstances. The court may rule on the moving papers or have the parties appear for a hearing where the court can question the parties to determine whether there truly are extraordinary circumstances. The court can then either deny the motion or grant it. If granted the parties can get the final paperwork through and move on in their new found single life.
If you believe your situation may satisfy the extraordinary circumstances exception to the 90 day waiting rule, give us a call and we can give you our legal opinion on what your chances are of getting divorced early. Our Utah family law attorneys offer free consultations so contact us 24/7 at 801.413.1753.