If you file for divorce in Utah and have minor children, you have to take a divorce education class and a divorce orientation class. These classes are part of what makes Utah’s divorce laws more stringent than most state laws in the country. Now a proposed law for the 2014 general session of the legislature seeks to make it even tougher for Utahns to get a divorce. The proposal seeks to do the following:
There is no reason for this law. Utah Code already provides a procedure that is aimed at accomplishing what this new law is planned to do: decrease the number of divorces. A spouse who wants to delay divorce can force his spouse to work on their relationship by filing a petition for conciliation, which basically forces the parties into marriage counseling.
When it comes down to it, if someone wants to get a divorce there is nothing the state can do to prevent that. The only thing these divorce classes and other proposes divorce prevention measures accomplish is wasting more time and money than otherwise would happen without them. Utah’s Legislature should do less.