Only if your spouse files an answer. Mediation in Utah is triggered by that one event — not by having children, not by a trial date, and not by the court deciding it would be a good idea. If the two of you agree and sign a stipulation, your case never reaches the requirement at all.
Under Utah Code § 81-4-403, once an answer is filed in response to a divorce petition, the remaining contested issues are referred to mediation, and the parties must participate in at least one session before the case proceeds. It is mandatory, not discretionary — a judge does not have to order it, and it is not limited to custody disputes.
The order of events is what people get wrong. Mediation does not sit in front of a trial date, waiting for someone to ask for one. It sits immediately after the answer, which is usually months earlier.
If you and your spouse agree on everything and sign a stipulation, there is no answer contesting the petition and no contested issue to refer. Nothing triggers § 81-4-403, and no session is required.
This is the practical half of the rule, and it is the half that gets left out. Told that Utah "requires mediation," a couple who already agree will go and pay for a session they were never obliged to attend.
Attend. That is the whole requirement. You are not required to settle, and you are not required to accept anything proposed in the room. If the session ends without agreement, the requirement is satisfied and the case moves on.
Costs are normally split equally, and the mediator has to be court-qualified. Because it has to happen anyway, going early is what keeps the bill down — issues are cheaper to resolve before both sides have spent months building positions around them.
You can ask to be excused for good cause — through the court, through the ADR Office’s Motion to Excuse Mediation, or from a qualified mediator.
“Utah requires at least one mediation session before a judge will set a trial.”
Close enough to survive a casual reading, and wrong in the way that costs money. Mediation is mandatory and it does come before trial — but naming the trial as the trigger implies every divorce reaches it. Most do not. The trigger is the answer, and an uncontested case never files one.
If your spouse has already answered, mediation is ahead of you either way. If they have not — and you two agree — you are looking at a different process entirely. Our mediation vs. litigation comparison covers what changes once you are on the contested track, and divvi Mediate is what a session with us looks like.
divvi is not a law firm and this is not legal advice. § 81-4-403 is the controlling statute; a court can excuse the requirement, and your own case may have facts that change the answer.
Only once an answer is filed. Utah Code § 81-4-403 refers the remaining contested issues to mediation when your spouse files an answer to the petition, and the parties must attend at least one session before the case proceeds. If you both agree and sign a stipulation, no answer is filed and the requirement never applies.
No. An uncontested divorce has no answer contesting the petition and no contested issue to refer, so nothing triggers the mediation requirement. Told only that “Utah requires mediation,” couples who already agree sometimes pay for a session they were never obliged to attend.
It happens well before that. The trigger is the answer, not the trial — which in practice is usually months earlier. The common phrasing, that Utah requires a session before a judge will set a trial, gets the timing roughly right and the trigger wrong, and the trigger is the part that decides whether the rule applies to you at all.
No. The requirement is to attend one session, not to settle. If the session ends without agreement, the requirement is satisfied and the case moves on. Costs are normally split equally and the mediator must be court-qualified.
Yes, for good cause — through the court, through the ADR Office’s Motion to Excuse Mediation, or from a qualified mediator. Domestic violence is a recognized reason to ask. If you are afraid of your spouse, raise it rather than attending and hoping it goes well.