Document the parenting history
Build a factual account using calendars, school and medical records, communications, travel, expenses, caregiving responsibilities, and reliable witness information.
Utah child custody and parent-time
A parenting plan must work on ordinary Tuesdays—not only on paper.
Custody decisions involve legal authority and physical care, but the durable questions are practical: school, health, routines, transportation, communication, holidays, conflict, and how children experience two homes.
The complete problem
Child Custody & Parent-Time
Utah custody matters distinguish legal custody—authority over important decisions—from physical custody and parent-time. Labels alone do not create a functioning plan. The terms must account for the child’s age and needs, the parents’ schedules and locations, school, transportation, health, communication, decision-making, holidays, travel, and a method for handling disagreement.
Mountain State Attorneys helps parents translate their concerns into specific facts and workable proposals. The focus is not on winning every point of contact between adults. It is on presenting a credible plan, protecting the parent-child relationship, and creating terms clear enough to reduce future conflict.
This page provides general information, not advice about a particular matter. The facts, law, deadlines, and available options must be evaluated individually.
A sharper first review
The strongest presentation is child-specific and workable
The first useful conversation separates what is known, what is assumed, what must be preserved, and what decision comes next.
- 01
What has each parent’s role been in the child’s care, education, health, routine, and activities?
- 02
What schedule fits the child’s needs and the parents’ actual distance, work, school, and transportation constraints?
- 03
How will major decisions, information sharing, emergencies, travel, holidays, and communication be handled?
- 04
Are safety, domestic-violence, substance, mental-health, relocation, or high-conflict concerns supported by reliable evidence?
- 05
What temporary arrangement will preserve stability while the case is pending?
How the work develops
A strategy built for the actual record.
Design the real schedule
Test proposed terms against school nights, exchanges, work, transportation, activities, holidays, summer, technology, and the child’s developmental needs.
Reduce recurring conflict
Draft clear information-sharing, decision, notice, communication, and dispute-resolution provisions instead of leaving predictable questions unanswered.
Before the next decision
Questions worth asking early.
What is the difference between legal and physical custody?
Legal custody concerns authority to make important decisions for the child. Physical custody and parent-time concern where the child lives and when each parent provides care. A case may address these components differently.
Does joint custody mean equal time?
Not necessarily. Decision-making authority and the parenting schedule are related but distinct. The appropriate arrangement depends on the governing standards and the child’s and family’s circumstances.
Should I keep a parenting journal?
A contemporaneous, factual record can be useful. Record dates, events, exchanges, care, communications, and the child’s needs without exaggeration, insults, speculation, or coaching the child.
Can a child choose where to live?
A child’s views may be considered in an age- and circumstance-appropriate manner, but the child does not simply decide the legal outcome. Avoid placing a child in the middle or asking the child to advocate between parents.
Authority and maintenance
Reviewed, sourced, and kept current.
This page provides general information. The authorities that control a particular matter depend on its facts, date, forum, and jurisdiction.
- Written by
- Joshua R. Kotter
- Attorney review
- Joshua R. Kotter
- Last reviewed
- September 4, 2026
- Next scheduled review
- December 4, 2026, or sooner if controlling law changes
- Jurisdictional scope
- Utah
Start with a clear next step
Let’s identify what needs attention now.
Tell us where the matter stands, what is at risk, and what deadline or decision comes next.