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Mandatory Divorce Education and Orientation in Utah – Ripe for Repeal

The Utah Code provides:

§ 30-3-11.3. Mandatory educational course for divorcing parents — Purpose — Curriculum — Exceptions.

(1) The Judicial Council shall approve and implement a mandatory course for divorcing parents in all judicial districts. The mandatory course is designed to educate and sensitize divorcing parties to their children’s needs both during and after the divorce process.

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(3) As a prerequisite to receiving a divorce decree, both parties are required to attend a mandatory course on their children’s needs after filing a complaint for divorce and receiving a docket number, unless waived under Section 30-3-4. If that requirement is waived, the court may permit the divorce action to proceed.

* * * * *

(8) (a) Each party shall pay the costs of the course to the independent contractor providing the course at the time and place of the course.

If you want to learn more about this mandatory divorce education course, click here: http://www.utcourts.gov/specproj/dived.htm

§30-3-11.4. Mandatory orientation course for divorcing parties — Purpose — Curriculum — Exceptions.

(1) There is established a mandatory divorce orientation course for all parties with minor children who file a petition for temporary separation or for a divorce. A couple with no minor children are not required, but may choose to attend the course [sic]. The purpose of the course shall be to educate parties about the divorce process and reasonable alternatives.

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(8) Each participant shall pay the costs of the course, which may not exceed $20, to the independent contractor providing the course at the time and place of the course.

If you want to learn more about this mandatory divorce orientation course, click here: http://www.utcourts.gov/specproj/dived.htm

 

As of the date of this posting, course fees for the Divorce Orientation and Divorce Education courses total $55 ($35.00 for the education course, $20 for the orientation course) and the courses take three (3) hours (two hours for the education course, one hour for the orientation course).

Currently, the state has budgeted $22,427 for people who cannot afford the $50 charged for the mandatory divorce and orientation courses (but you have to be found impecunious, i.e., poverty-stricken, to qualify for a fee waiver.

In 2010, 7,000 people attended the Divorce Orientation and Divorce Education courses. At $55 a pop, that’s $385,000. $385,000! Per year! For what? Three hours in which adults are “taught” the following:

The mandatory course is designed to educate and sensitize divorcing parties to their children’s needs both during and after the divorce process. (§ 30-3-11.3(1))

The mandatory course shall instruct both parties:
(a) about divorce and its impacts on:
(i) their child or children;
(ii) their family relationship; and
(iii) their financial responsibilities for their child or children; and
(b) that domestic violence has a harmful effect on children and family relationships. (§ 30-3-11.3(5))

(a) options available as alternatives to divorce;
(b) resources available from courts and administrative agencies for resolving custody and support issues without filing for divorce;
(c) resources available to improve or strengthen the marriage;
(d) a discussion of the positive and negative consequences of divorce;
(e) a discussion of the process of divorce;
(f) options available for proceeding with a divorce, including:
(i) mediation;
(ii) collaborative law; and
(iii) litigation; and
(g) a discussion of post-divorce resources.

(§ 30-3-11.4(5))

Are you kidding me? By what right does the legislature compel married adults, with children, to subject themselves to such patronizing for three hours, and for a $55 fee?

First, anyone who files for divorce already knows, by virtue of the fact that he/she is seeking a divorce and thus filing a complaint for divorce, what divorce is. Do not insult our intelligence by suggesting that one must attend a course to learn what anyone who isn’t living under a rock already knows or should know.

Second, how many people honestly do not adequately know of the “impact” of divorce on children, on the family relationship, on their financial responsibilities for their children, and don’t know that domestic violence “has a harmful effect on children and family relationships [sic]”? That’s what the law says you need to know, folks.

Third, what business does the legislature or the courts have telling one who seeks a divorce of “alternatives to divorce”? What alternatives?

Staying married and trying to reconcile? That’s a great idea (really) for some, but you’re not likely to convince anyone in an hour.

Putting a contract out on your spouse’s life?

Disappearing to Brazil?

Give me a break. Look, I wouldn’t wish a divorce on my worst enemy, but when one concluded that he/she wants a divorce, is a one-hour course going to change anyone’s mind? What makes the legislature or the courts think it should force people to spend $20 and an hour’s time to learn about “resources available from courts and administrative agencies for resolving custody and support issues without filing for divorce” that could just as easily be printed on a sheet of paper and mailed for 44¢ or posted online for free? Likewise, why must anyone, at any time, be forced by the government to spend $20 and an hour’s time to learn about “resources available to improve or strengthen the marriage”?

Fourth, is “a discussion of the positive and negative consequences of divorce” really a necessary prerequisite to seeking a divorce? I have met, in my 15-year career to date, precisely one (1) person who honestly did not have what I considered an adequate understanding of the positive and negative consequences of divorce. Esteemed legislators and jurists, give the general public a little credit.

Fifth and finally, the Utah Courts already have a wealth of information published and available online, free of charge, that “discusses the process of divorce.” The Internet itself is awash in free information that “discusses the process of divorce” in a level of depth and breadth that no one-hour, $20 course could ever hope to match. Moreover and again I must ask why the legislature and courts feel it necessary to charge $20 and take an hour of a person’s time to require him to appear personally and be told about “options available for proceeding with a divorce, including mediation, collaborative law, and litigation” or about “post-divorce resources” when all of that information is already online, free, and available at one’s convenience?

And I wonder how many parents have decided against divorce because of the $55, three-hour course they were forced to take? I wonder how many divorces went so much more smoothly because of the divorce education and orientation courses. But I digress?

I offer the following stopgap measure for those who simply feel they must boss us around and spend taxpayer money to do it. For a fraction of the $385,000 that is spent annually on divorce education and orientation (The $22,427 the state already budgets for paying for poor people to take the courses would be plenty), I would gladly (eagerly) prepare a one-hour, interactive online video that would adequately inform divorcing parents about everything §§ 30-3-11.3 and 30-3-11.4 require and offer it for a .99¢ fee (to cover the costs of website maintenance and updating, or the State of Utah can just pay me its $22,427 budget and I could offer the course online for free–hell, for that kind of money I could pay every divorcing parent $1 to take the course and still have plenty of money left over to maintain the website).

To ensure that every parent completed the course (as if that really matters in the grand scheme of things), I’d do what many online “tests” do and have random questions pop up that the parent would have to answer to show a) that he’s watching at that time; and b) that he’s paying attention and can answer the question. Lists of those ever-so-important divorce resources would be listed on the website and available to print, if for some reason one would want a printed copy.

Although my proposal would save 7000 people a total of $378,000 per year, it’s still not the best solution.

We should just repeal §§ 30-3-11.3 and 30-3-11.4 altogether as relics of a misguided nanny state. There is a glut of extremely well-made material on divorce already available online, through churches, through schools and civic centers, and through private support groups that can tell any parent anything and everything he/she needs or ought to know about any aspect of divorce. There is simply no—absolutely no—compelling reason[1] to have §§ 30-3-11.3 and 30-3-11.4 in this day and age. But until the day of repeal comes, we can, as I have shown with this post, do better than what we have now. We owe ourselves better than what we have now.

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