What Is the Minimum Parent-time a Parent Can Get in Utah?

Custody and parent-time is one of the most popular (and by popular I mean litigated and fought over) issue in Utah divorces and child custody cases.

And for good reason: kids and their futures are really important.

In divorces and custody cases, it’s always good to know your baseline parent-time. What I mean is what is the lowest amount of parent-time you can expect.

Not that you want the lowest amount, but you have to know the bottom so you can tell how well you’re doing in relation to the bottom.

In Utah, the lowest amount of parent-time given to noncustodial parents (i.e., parents that don’t have their child as much as the other parent) is laid out in a specific law.

The law lays out essentially the following (keep in mind, this is the parent-time for the non-custodial parent):

1. Every other weekend from school getting out until Sunday night at 7 p.m.
2. One evening a week from about 5.30 p.m. to 8.30 p.m.
3. Split holidays. (Click here to see what the Utah parent-time holidays are.)
4. Two weeks of summer parent-time.

(Now, there’s a bit more to it than this, but this is the gist.)

The bottom is really four overnights out of every twenty-eight overnights. This isn’t much, so you’ll have a lot of room to move up if you’re the non-custodial parent.

And if you go below the parent-time laid out above, then someone has to prove special circumstances (e.g., drug use), but that is difficult to prove.

Hope that helps give you a lay of the land. If you would like to read the entire law that lays out the minimum schedule, click here.