Blog
How Does a Job Loss (or Disability) Affect Alimony?
Over the years, I have had to help clients whose alimony obligation is much higher than the client’s ability to pay. Sometimes a client agrees to an alimony obligation that is too high from the outset, and other times, the client’s ability to pay alimony decreased...
Do You Even Need a Motion For Temporary Orders in Your Utah Divorce Case?
Do You Even Need a Motion For Temporary Orders in your Utah Divorce Case? Not every case needs a Motion For Temporary Orders (“MTO”). The truth is, MOST cases don’t need an MTO. The first thing I consider early in every divorce case is, can we get this case settled or...
Valuation Date of Retirement Account in a Utah Divorce
In my last post, I wrote about the Petrzelka case. Petrzelka v. Goodwin, 2020 UT App 34. In this fascinating court of appeals case, not only did the court deny the husband’s request for alimony, but dealt him another serious defeat by upholding the trial court’s...
Alimony, Need, and Imputing Income after Retirement
A fascinating case came out from the Utah Court of Appeals in March of 2020 on the issues of alimony and when to value a retirement account for division after a divorce trial. In the case of Petrzelka v. Goodwin, 2020 UT App 34, the husband was seeking alimony from...
No Need To Come In
Fontenot Law is able to handle divorce cases without the need to come to our offices. If you want to get information about a Utah divorce case, you can call us at 801.312.9330. We can get your case started without needing to come to the office in person, and for...
What is a Judicial Settlement Conference?
To get a Utah divorce or family law case to trial, you must first go through a Commissioner Pretrial Conference. From this hearing comes what is called a pretrial order. It is very important that the pretrial order states each and every issue you plan on having the...
Student Debt During a Divorce
How is student loan debt divided in a Utah divorce case? This question was answered recently by the Utah Court of Appeals in a case called Burggraaf v. Burggraaf, 2019 UT App 195. Generally, any debt incurred during a marriage is considered marital debt, which should...
What Drives Divorce and Custody Litigation?
What Drives Divorce and Custody Litigation? Most of the divorce cases we handle result in a settlement. Settlements happen not because the attorneys are not aggressive enough, but because the parties, through the advice of their attorneys, are making agreements that...
How to Choose an Attorney
The Best Advice I’ve Ever Heard on How to Choose an Attorney One weekend I found myself in a used bookstore in Bountiful. I came across a book titled, “All You Need to Know About the Music Business,” by Donald S. Passman. Passman is a music industry lawyer. The book...
How To Start A Divorce Case
HOW DO I START MY DIVORCE OR MODIFICATION CASE? Many of the people that come to my office for a free consult don’t even know where to start when it comes to starting a divorce proceedings, filing for a divorce or custody modification. The truth is, getting a case...