Divorce Lawyer In Utah: Divorce Court in Utah

divorce in utah

So I was asked by a new client: which courthouse will my divorce be in?

We don’t get to pick which courthouse your case will be in. Utah law requires that we file your divorce case in the county where you have resided in during the last 3 months. If you have minor children, then we must file where the minor children have resided for the last 6 months. This makes it so that you have

Since our main office is located in West Jordan, sometimes clients believe that we can file their case in the West Jordan Courthouse. Although we wish that we could (after all, the West Jordan Courthouse is only a 2 minute drive from our office); however, all cases in Salt Lake County must be filed in the Matheson Courthouse, located at 450 South State Street.

Here is a photo of the building:

divorce courthouse in utah

You’ve probably seen this building before. Most cases in Salt Lake end up here. There are other courthouses in Salt Lake City, but this is the main one. Now, if you live in South Jordan, Sandy, West Jordan, Draper, or Riverton for example, you must file your divorce case in the Matheson Courthouse. Now, about 1 out of ever 4 cases is administratively assigned to the West Jordan Courthouse. This means that you may get lucky and not have to drive all the way downtown. But it is completely out of our control. This is done by the administrative office of the courts and has nothing to do with us.

The Salt Lake County District court is in the Third Judicial District. All of the courts of general jurisdiction in the state of Utah are divided up into judicial districts and are called “district courts.” All divorces must be filed in a district court. Justice courts in Utah do not have the proper jurisdiction for you to file for divorce there. In fact, if you tried to file for divorce in Justice Court, they very likely would not accept your case filing and reject it.

The Third District includes Salt Lake County, Tooele County and Summit County. If you are filing for divorce and you live in Park City, Utah; then, you would file in the Third District Court, Summit County Department. If you live in Tooele, Utah or Grantsville, you would file in the Third District Court, Tooele Department.

The court in Provo, Utah County, does the same thing that the Salt Lake District Court does.. If you live in Lehi, American Fork, Orem or Provo, you must file your case in the Provo courthouse located at 125 West 100 North, Provo, Utah. But, a random amount of cases is re-assigned to the American Fork Department of the Fourth Judicial District. So, despite the fact that if you live in Utah county and you are required to file for divorce in the Provo Department, it is possible that you case is reassigned to the American Fork Department. Now, with that said, you should understand that divorce courts in Utah use the court commissioner system, meaning that sometimes you do not appear before a judge, but before a court commissioner.

In Utah County, the Court Commissioners are in Provo. So, if your case is reassigned to American Fork, you may still have to go to the Provo Courthouse for your hearing if it is before a court commissioner. Keep this in mind because you don’t want to go to the wrong courthouse.

I hope this has been helpful to you.

Please let us know other questions that you have so we can better help you with your legal needs.

Be sure to call us if you need a family law attorney.

Until the next post – thanks for visiting!