Legal Question in Family Law in Utah
My decree orders me to transport the kids to school in the morning. I'm the non-custodial parent.
If I travel and I extend first right and my X accepts first right, does my X except all responsibilities for care, transportation, etc.? Common courtesy suggests I'd make alternate arrangements, and I did so, but doesn't acceptance of first right shift the burden of my parenting responsibilities to my X during my absence? She'll argue she's only accepting responsibility for my mid-week parent-time.
2 Answers from Attorneys
The person obtaining bonus time is required to provide all transportation related to the bonus time, unless the decree specifies otherwise.
Without seeing the specific language of your Decree and/or Parenting Plan, it's a little difficult to give an opinion on this question. However, the Advisory Guidelines contained in Utah Code Annotate, Section 30-3-33(15) provides:
(15) Parental care shall be presumed to be better care for the child than surrogate care and the court shall encourage the parties to cooperate in allowing the noncustodial parent, if willing and able to transport the children, to provide the child care. Child care arrangements existing during the marriage are preferred as are child care arrangements with nominal or no charge.
In essence, when the noncustodial parent exercises his/her right of first refusal, then the basic law is that he/she is to provide the transportation. Again, unless your Decree or Parenting Plan provides for something else, this is the general rule on the issue of transportation associated with the right of first refusal.
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