Utah courts select children's therapists and limit paid custody evaluations

Courts may order a professional review to help decide child custody or parenting time. These reviews cover divorce, separation, and child custody cases where the court finds that the parties can pay. A party must request the review, or the court must make specific findings that extraordinary circumstances warrant it. The court appoints an agreed evaluator or chooses from the parties' proposed names after considering objections. Parties may review a proposed evaluator and ask for removal for good cause. The order must set the review's scope, payment responsibility, and dates. Disclosure is limited to the case or other proceedings where the court finds it necessary. The custody evaluation provisions took effect May 6, 2026.

Custody evaluators must hold an eligible professional license, complete relevant training, and remain impartial. Eligible professionals include specified licensed mental health clinicians and physicians trained in psychiatry. Utah's Administrative Office of the Courts must keep a list showing evaluator contact details, fees, and license expiration dates. Evaluators need at least 18 hours of training on children's needs, family relationships, and the effects of conflict and abuse, completed within two years before their latest license issuance or renewal. They must disclose conflicts and cannot advocate for either side. Those lacking specialized training on serious issues in the case must consult a specialist and assess possible danger. Those with fewer than three completed custody evaluations must consult another evaluator for guidance. These evaluator standards took effect May 6, 2026.

Parents choose a licensed mental health professional together when a court orders treatment involving their child; the court chooses if they cannot agree. These rules cover custody cases between parents, excluding child protection, juvenile justice, and government-involved child placement cases. A child's therapist cannot take another role in the case that creates, or appears to create, a conflict, even when treatment was not court-ordered. If parents disagree, each submits three names with statements about qualifications and conflicts. The court chooses from those lists. The court must consider ability to pay, use an insurance-network provider when covered care is available, and choose a nearby provider when practical. A parent with primary or exclusive medical decision authority receives preference unless the court finds good cause otherwise. Courts cannot require membership in a specific professional group. They cannot require missed school unless no reasonable alternative exists. The treatment selection and conflict rules took effect May 6, 2026.

Judges may consider coercive control when deciding child custody or parenting schedules. Coercive control means patterns of controlling behavior, such as isolating someone, controlling their money, or using threats to force their choices. The behavior must form a pattern that intentionally, or in effect, unreasonably interferes with another person's ability to make or act on independent decisions. Reasonable and appropriate parenting of a minor child is excluded. These provisions took effect May 6, 2026, or earlier upon the governor's approval if two-thirds of each legislative chamber approved them.

Courts may order one party to pay the other party's necessary, reasonable legal and witness fees when the required financial findings are met. These awards cover divorce, cohabitant abuse protective orders, and cases establishing custody, parenting time, support, alimony, or property division. The requesting party must lack resources to pay, and the other party must have resources to pay. Choosing not to work despite being able and available, or choosing earnings significantly below one's earning ability, prevents a finding that the party lacks resources. That restriction does not apply to people seeking suitable income, earning less to care for a child or vulnerable adult, or between earning periods in suitable seasonal or project-based work. The fee award provisions took effect May 6, 2026.