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Common Legal Questions in Utah

143 attorney-reviewed questions from people in Utah. Select one to read the guidance, or start a free chat.

Family & Child Custody (30)

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Utah Courts & Legal Aid

Case Law Cited in Utah

253 court decisions cited across these pages. Showing the 50 most frequently cited; each page lists the cases it relies on. These are provided as legal background, not as advice about any particular case.

Aris Vision Institute, Inc. v. Wasatch Property Management, Inc., 2006 UT 45, 143 P.3d 278

Under Utah's forcible entry and detainer statute, all damages directly and proximately resulting from a forcible entry or a forcible or unlawful detainer must be trebled — including loss, damage, and depreciation of the occupant's personal property that the possessor withheld.

Cited on: Removing an Off-Lease Occupant — What the Leaseholders' Exposure Looks Like · Recovering Belongings After Being Locked Out by a Relative

Aris Vision Institute, Inc. v. Wasatch Property Management, Inc., 2005 UT App 326, 121 P.3d 24

Utah Supreme Court decision affirming a judgment of wrongful eviction, conversion, and forcible detainer against a party that locked an occupant out and refused for five months to release the occupant's personal property, and holding that the damages 'resulting' from a forcible detainer — including loss of, damage to, and depreciation of the occupant's personal property — are recoverable and subject to trebling under the forcible detainer statute.

Cited on: Recovering Belongings After Being Locked Out by a Relative · Access to Belongings and Rent Credit After an Apartment Fire

Bonnie & Hyde, Inc. v. Lynch, 2013 UT App 153, 305 P.3d 196

Even where an occupant has abandoned the premises — defeating claims for forcible entry, unlawful detainer, and wrongful eviction — a party who is holding the occupant's personal property only by the occupant's consent commits wrongful conversion by refusing to return it once that consent is withdrawn, absent a valid lien or an unexpired writ of attachment.

Cited on: Recovering Belongings After Being Locked Out by a Relative · Access to Belongings and Rent Credit After an Apartment Fire

Mackey v. Krause, 2025 UT 37

A person who reports observed or suspected misconduct can raise privilege as a defense to a resulting defamation claim, and where the defendant files a special motion under Utah's Uniform Public Expression Protection Act the burden shifts to the plaintiff to point to evidence making a prima facie case that the statements were not privileged, or that the defendant abused the privilege, before the defamation claim may proceed.

Cited on: Recourse for a False Workplace Report of a Weapons Violation · Losing a Job After a False Report of a Firearm Threat

Meyer v. Aposhian, 2016 UT App 47, 369 P.3d 1284

Confirms the petitioner must actually show the respondent is a perpetrator of abuse or domestic violence to obtain a cohabitant abuse protective order; the Court of Appeals affirmed the denial of a protective order where the district court found the parties' encounters had never escalated to physical violence and there was no imminent threat of abuse.

Cited on: Defending Against a Child Protective Order With Limited Means · Seeking a Protective Order Against an Abusive Parent

Syme v. Symphony Grp. LLC, 2018 UT App 212, 437 P.3d 576

Where a buyer cancels before performance and sues to recover deposits, the recipient may retain the money only if a contract provision actually authorizes forfeiture on the facts that occurred; the court of appeals reversed summary judgment for the builder because the event said to trigger forfeiture of the construction deposit (the color-selection meeting) never took place.

Cited on: Online Retailer Withholding Purchased Goods Over a Fraud Allegation · Deposit Forfeiture When a Prospective Tenant Never Moves In

A.W. v. Marelli, 2024 UT App 8, 543 P.3d 786

Utah's bar for 'extreme and outrageous conduct' in an intentional-infliction-of-emotional-distress claim is demanding, and a court may decide the question as a matter of law where reasonable minds could not differ; more than a decade of unwelcome, repeated, and expressly rejected contact — letters, gifts, Facebook messages, and a couple of unwanted visits, considered as a single course of conduct — was held not to rise to the required level of outrage.

Cited on: Civil Claim Against a Harassing Neighbor After a Noise Complaint

Bel Courtyard Investments, Inc. v. Wolfe, 2013 UT App 217, 310 P.3d 747

Tenants prevailed against landlords on a forcible-detainer claim, illustrating that a landlord may not remove or pressure out a tenant without following lawful eviction procedure.

Cited on: Notice Required to End a Month-to-Month Tenancy

Bichler v. DEI Systems, Inc., 2009 UT 63, 220 P.3d 1203

Counterclaims, including an equitable claim of setoff, may be asserted in a Utah unlawful detainer action under Rule 13, Utah R. Civ. P.; but because a setoff claim unrelated to possession does not bear on the possession question, the district court need not resolve it before ruling on possession.

Cited on: Contesting a Three-Day Eviction Notice Over Black Mold

Bountiful City v. Swenson, 2024 UT App 133, 557 P.3d 1158

A person cannot be punished for disobeying a protective order unless the order is 'sufficiently specific and definite as to leave no reasonable basis for doubt regarding its meaning'; the Court of Appeals affirmed dismissal of a protective order violation charge where the father merely attended his child's medical appointment that the mother also attended, because the order contained no proximity or distance restriction and its no-contact provision addressed communication, which he did not attempt.

Cited on: Whether a 'No Parent-Time' Provision Bars Phone and Video Contact With a Child

Bryner v. Cardon Outreach, LLC, 2018 UT 52, 428 P.3d 1096

Utah's Hospital Lien Statute, Utah Code § 38-7-1, sets a fixed distribution priority for a personal-injury recovery: the patient's attorney fees, court costs, and other necessary expenses of obtaining the judgment or settlement come off the top; the hospital's lien then attaches to the remaining net recovery above $100 and has priority over other creditors and over the patient; and absent a written agreement, the lien amount may not be reduced by anything other than those attorney fees. The Utah Supreme Court rejected the argument that hospitals must bear a proportional share of the patient's attorney fees, holding the common fund doctrine inapplicable to an enforceable statutory lien on a judgment.

Cited on: Medical Facility Garnishment After a Settled Injury Claim

CCW Ranch, LLC v. Nielsen, 2012 UT App 205, 283 P.3d 1072

Where adjoining owners reach an agreement — even an informal one — that each will rebuild or repair a particular section of shared boundary fence, that agreement governs and is enforceable, with a reasonable time for performance implied where none is specified; the statutory partition-fence cost rule that the court applied to future maintenance costs (then Utah Code § 4-26-5.1, renumbered § 4-26-103) is limited to 'qualified landowners' whose land is used for grazing livestock and is under a conservation easement or in agricultural use.

Cited on: Who Pays to Replace a Deteriorating Shared Boundary Fence

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