Legal Services – Family Law

Family Law Matters

Danielle Hawkes practices in Family Law including divorce, custody, child support, alimony, spousal support, retirement accounts, splitting property, and LGBT family matters.

Domestic Violence

Unfortunately, domestic violence is an issue that comes up from time to time in family law cases. Danielle has experience handling both domestic violence and defending against false claims of domestic violence. The three major court actions involving domestic violence are protective orders, stalking injunctions, and child protective orders. The Utah Courts Website has extensive information about each of these remedies. Some of that information is included here:

Protective Order Can:

• Order the Respondent not to harm the Petitioner, the Petitioners children or anyone who lives with the Petitioner.
• Order the Respondent to stay away from the Petitioner and the Petitioners home, job, vehicle or school, and not to contact or harass the Petitioner in any way.
• Order the Respondent not to have any guns or other weapons.
• Order temporary possession of the home, car and essential personal property.
• Order temporary custody, parent-time and support for the children.
• Order temporary spousal support if the Petitioner and Respondent are married.
• Order the children not to be removed from Utah.

The Petitioner can get a Protective Order if:

• • The Respondent has harmed the Petitioner, and
  • The Petitioner and Respondent are related, live with or used to live with each other, are parents of a child together, or if the Petitioner is pregnant by the Respondent, and
  • The Petitioner and Respondent are at least 16, married or emancipated.

OR

• The Petitioner is afraid the Respondent will harm her or him, and
• The Petitioner and Respondent are related, live with or used to live with each other, are parents of a child together, or if the Petitioner is pregnant by the Respondent, and
• The Petitioner and Respondent are at least 16, married or emancipated.

“Harm” means

• Hitting, kicking, pushing,pulling hair, using a weapon, or other types of physical attacks.
• Stalking, harassing,kidnapping, sexual assault.
• Restricting movement, or stopping someone from calling for help.
• Breaking things or throwing things to intimidate.
• Trying or threatening to do any of these things.

Stalking Injunction

• A person stalked you if that person did three things:
  1. Stalked you two or more times. “Stalked” means that person stayed physically or visually close to you, or made threats directed at you.
  2. Knew or should have known that the stalking would cause a reasonable person to be emotionally distressed or to be afraid of being physically hurt.
  3. Actually made you or an immediate family member emotionally distressed or afraid of being physically hurt. An “immediate family member” means your spouse, child, sibling,or any other person who lives with you now, or who lived with you within the past 6 months.
• With a stalking injunction, the court can order that the respondent:
  • Not stalk you
  • Not contact or go near you, and/or
  • Not go near other people listed in the order.

Child Protective Order
Although a standard Protective Order can include children, another option is to file the petition on behalf of a child only. In that case, the adult, or someone over the age of sixteen(16) would file a child protective order in the juvenile court rather than the district court.