Custody, the parent-time or custody schedule, child support and alimony can all be revisited after a Utah decree. Property division cannot — once the court has divided marital property that is final, absent fraud or a clerical error.
Every modification — custody, support, or alimony — requires proof of a material change in circumstances since the original decree was entered. Courts do not modify orders simply because one party is unhappy with the outcome.
You can request a child support modification if at least 3 years have passed since the last order, or if there has been a substantial change in circumstances at any time.
Custody modifications carry the highest bar of any post-decree change. You must show both:
Alimony can be modified or terminated on proof of a material change. Two events trigger automatic termination under Utah law regardless of what the decree says:
File a petition to modify in the same court that entered your decree, with a declaration setting out what changed. You can ask either when at least three years have passed since the last order, or at any time on a substantial change in circumstances. Run Utah's ORS child support calculator on both your current and your updated figures and put both in front of the court, judges give that output significant weight. The other party is formally served and has 21 days to respond if served in Utah, and most Utah courts require mediation before setting a hearing.
Custody, the parent-time schedule, child support and alimony can all be revisited. Property division cannot, once the court has divided marital property that division is final, with no mechanism to reopen it absent fraud or a clerical error. That asymmetry surprises people, and it is the reason the property terms are worth getting right the first time.
Every modification requires proof that something material changed since the decree was entered; courts do not reopen an order because one party is unhappy with it. Typical examples are a substantial change in either parent's income, a relocation, a change in the child's medical, educational or developmental needs, and, for alimony, the recipient cohabiting with a romantic partner. The change must be significant rather than merely inconvenient, and courts are sceptical of minor or manufactured ones.
Considerably. Custody carries the highest bar of any post-decree change: you have to show both a material change in circumstances and that the new arrangement is in the child's best interest, applying the same factors the court used originally. Courts weight a child's stability and continuity heavily and are reluctant to disrupt an established routine, so preferring a different schedule or having a new relationship is rarely enough on its own.
Alimony can be modified or terminated on proof of a material change, and two events end it automatically regardless of what the decree says, remarriage and the death of the recipient. Cohabitation is stronger than most people expect: on the payor's motion the court shall terminate alimony, and the payor has one year from when they knew or should have known. Alimony cannot be modified at all if your decree waived future modification rights.