Brown Family Law is ready to help you with your family law questions. We help parents, spouses, and partners throughout Park City and Summit County with divorce, custody, parent-time, support, and protective orders under Utah law.
If you’re ready to talk about your future, connect with our Park City family lawyer to schedule a case review. We want everyone to come out of this process unscathed. Tell us your story.
Why Park City Families Choose Brown Family Law
With 150 years of combined attorney experience and thousands of clients served since 2010, we bring calm, strategic guidance to family law matters. We handle everything with kindness—the goal is for everyone to come through this process as unscathed as possible.
For your first consultation, bring or gather:
- Your most recent tax return and a few pay stubs
- A draft budget showing income and monthly expenses
- A list of assets and debts with balances
- A proposed parenting schedule and notes about your child’s needs
- Any court papers you’ve received or filed
Get Clear Guidance for Your Divorce
Our Practice Areas at Brown Family Law
We handle many kinds of family law matters for Park City residents. Here are our major practice areas:
- Divorce lawyer in Park City: We help couples divide property, allocate debt, and create parenting plans that work for mountain-town schedules. Our goal is a fair resolution that protects your future.
- Paternity lawyer in Park City: We establish legal parentage so unmarried fathers can seek custody and parent-time. Once paternity is set, the court can issue support and decision-making orders.
- Protective orders lawyer in Park City: We help families facing domestic violence obtain court protection quickly. Safety planning includes supervised exchanges, no-contact provisions, and temporary custody arrangements.
- Alimony lawyer in Park City: We handle spousal support based on need, ability to pay, and the marital standard of living. Orders can be temporary during the case or long-term after the decree.
- Modifications lawyer in Park City: We update custody, parent-time, or support orders when life changes. A new job, relocation, or shift in the child’s needs may justify a court review.
- Child support lawyer in Park City: We want to see your child have the financial resources they need as they grow. We calculate support under Utah guidelines, including medical coverage and childcare costs.
A Calmer, Clearer Way Through Divorce
How Divorce Works in Park City
The typical stages include filing, service, financial disclosures, temporary orders (if needed), mediation, and either settlement or trial. Your timeline depends on how quickly information is exchanged and how ready each side is to make decisions. Some couples finish in a few months; others take longer when property or custody is contested.
To file in Summit County, at least one spouse must have lived in a single Utah county for the past three months.
Utah has a 30-day waiting period between filing and finalizing, though a judge can shorten it for good reason. After filing, an automatic domestic injunction limits certain actions by both spouses, such as transferring assets, canceling insurance, or disturbing the peace of the other.
In Utah, you can file based on “irreconcilable differences” without proving fault. If you have children, Utah generally requires parent education courses and at least one mediation session before trial, unless the court excuses those requirements.
Child Custody and Parent-Time in Park City
Utah separates “legal custody” (decision-making) from “physical custody” (where the child lives). Parents can share legal custody, and physical custody can be joint or primary. The court looks at the child’s best interests using factors including each parent’s historical caregiving, co-parenting skills, and the child’s needs and schedule.
Park City families have to manage their lives around the city’s rhythms. Seasonal work in hospitality and outdoor recreation affects income and availability. Winter traffic, ski team practices, and tourism-season hours can complicate exchanges. We account for these realities when building court-ready proposals.
Plans can address travel time, who drives, bad-weather protocols, and backup pickup points. Holiday and summer schedules rotate year to year.
Parents can add specifics for school breaks and travel outside Utah. If supervision is needed for safety, the court can order supervised visitation with a plan for stepping down when appropriate.
Child Support and Alimony
Child support is calculated using Utah’s guidelines, which consider both parents’ gross monthly incomes and the number of overnights.
Seasonal and self-employment income—common in Park City—is handled by averaging over a reasonable period using tax returns and profit-and-loss statements.
Key support provisions include:
- Medical insurance
- Uninsured medical expenses
- Childcare costs
- Wage withholding
Alimony is based on one spouse’s need and the other’s ability to pay, while also considering the marital standard of living and marriage length. Utah courts try to equalize living standards as circumstances allow. Alimony generally lasts no longer than the marriage, with exceptions.
Property Division for Park City Couples
Utah uses equitable distribution to divide marital property and debts. Equitable means fair under the circumstances, which may or may not be a 50/50 split. The court looks at marriage length, each party’s contributions (including homemaking), and the nature of the assets.
Asset divisions can include homes with significant equity, second homes, short-term rental properties, and retirement accounts. Business interests require valuations. Dividing retirement accounts often needs a Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO) to transfer funds without taxes or penalties.
Modifications and Enforcement After Your Decree
Utah law allows modifications when there’s a material change affecting the prior order. For custody, you must show a substantial change since the last order and that the proposed change serves the child’s best interests. For support, changes to income, overnights, or childcare can justify a new calculation.
When orders are ignored, the court can enforce them through an Order to Show Cause. Consequences can include makeup parent-time, attorney fees, wage withholding, and contempt.
Document violations with texts, emails, and calendars—clear records help the judge see what’s happening. Our Park City family lawyers can help you with this and help you present your case of decree violations to the court.
Protective Orders and Family Safety
Utah offers civil protective orders for domestic violence and dating violence. You can file for a temporary order at the courthouse and, in some cases, through approved online court systems.
Judges can review requests quickly, sometimes the same day. If granted, a hearing follows within about two weeks to decide whether to extend it.
A protective order can address contact, residence, firearms, and temporary custody. If there are children, the court can add parenting provisions that balance safety with parenting needs, such as supervised exchanges or third-party drop-offs. Keep incident logs, photos, medical records, and messages to support your request.
Talk to a Park City Family Lawyer
Family challenges are hard, but you don’t have to handle them alone.
We help Park City families with divorce, custody, support, alimony, property division, and safety planning. Reach out to schedule a consultation with our family attorneys in Park City.
