Required Documents for Divorce and Parentage Cases
Family Law Clinic
8080 South Redwood Road, Room 2501
West Jordan, Utah 84088
Family Law Clinic
Matheson Courthouse
450 South State Street, Room W15
Salt Lake City, Utah 84114
Email: intakecoordinator@lasslc.org
DO NOT SUBMIT ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS. KEEP ALL ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS WITH YOUR PERSONAL RECORDS. LEGAL AID SOCIETY CANNOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR KEEPING OR RETURNING ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS.
Utah law requires certain documents in ALL family law cases (divorce, parentage/custody, guardianship). Legal Aid Society of Salt Lake requires you to provide those same documents when you apply. Your application will not be considered as complete until you provide ALL of the required documents. Due to the volume of applications at this time, we are asking that you send all of the documents at the same time.
To ensure your application process is as smooth as possible, when you provide documents to Legal Aid Society you shall give us PDFs or single-sided photocopies and you will keep your originals. When you email documents to Legal Aid Society, please send them to intakecoordinator@lasslc.org.
f you want to submit photocopies of the required documentation in person, please do so at one of our family law clinic locations at either the Matheson Courthouse in Room W-15 (first floor) on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays between 1-4:30 pm (if the clinic is closed please drop off your documents in Room W-17) or the West Jordan Courthouse in Room 2501, Monday through Friday between 9 am and 4:30 pm:
The following documents must be submitted in order for us to get you assigned to an attorney/paralegal team. If your Financial Declaration is not complete or you are missing documents, you may be required to submit a new application and new supporting documents.
Required Cover Letter
The Document Request Cover Letter will provide you with a list of the documents required for your case type (divorce or custody) and will act as the cover letter to your Financial Declaration and all other attached documents. Your application will be considered as incomplete without ALL of the required documents attached for your case type. It is important that you check off the number next to each listed document in your Document Request Letter so the Intake Coordinator can see that you fully completed this step of the application process.
Financial
1. Financial Declaration
PLEASE PROVIDE COMPLETE AND ACCURATE ANSWERS TO ALL QUESTIONS.
This document is required for ALL family law cases. You must complete the form and attach ALL of the required documents applicable to your case. An incomplete Financial Declaration with missing supporting documents will delay the application process or even worse your application may be denied causing you to have to submit a new application and Financial Declaration with new supporting documents. You will want to gather all of the supporting financial attachments listed below and submit all requested documentation at once.
The following list of documents are required by Utah Rule of Civil procedure 26.1 to be attached to the Financial Declaration in DIVORCE and CUSTODY cases:
2. Tax Documents
Divorce - Taxes: Copies of your complete federal and state income tax returns, including Form W-2, Form 1099, and Form K-1, and supporting tax schedules and attachments filed by you solely or jointly by you and your spouse for the TWO (2) most recently FILED tax years.
You may have to contact either your tax preparer OR the IRS directly to request copies of either the tax returns or income tax transcripts for the TWO (2) most recently FILED tax years.
If you did not file income tax returns for the last TWO (2) tax years, you will need to get a verification letter from the IRS of non-filing to show that you did not file for each tax year. You may obtain this information by visiting: https://www.irs.gov/Individuals/Get-Transcript.
Custody - Taxes: Copies of your complete federal and state income tax returns, including Form W-2, Form 1099, and Form K-1, and supporting tax schedules and attachments filed by you solely or jointly by you and your spouse for the most recently FILED tax year.
You may have to contact either your tax preparer OR the IRS directly to request copies of either the tax returns or income tax transcripts for the most recently FILED tax year.
If you did not file income tax returns for the most recently FILED tax year you will need to get a verification letter from the IRS of non-filing to show that you did not file. You may obtain this information by visiting: https://www.irs.gov/Individuals/Get-Transcript.
3. Income - Pay Statements
Divorce - Copies of your last 12 months of pay statements from all employers starting with the most recent employer. You may have to contact the HR department of your current or former employer(s) to obtain this documentation. If you have not been consistently employed for the last 12 months, you must provide pay statements for the months you did work and submit a 12 Month History form.
Custody - Copies of your last 3 months of pay statements from all employers starting with the most recent employer. You may have to contact the HR department of your current or former employer(s) to obtain this documentation. If you have not been consistently employed for the last 3 months, you must provide pay statements for the months you did work and submit a 12 Month History form, but only for the most recent 3 months.
4. Government Benefits Documents
If you do not receive Government Benefits or Social Security Income skip #4.
Copy of all government benefit statements: unemployment insurance, public assistance benefits received under a housing subsidy program, the Job Training Partnership Act, Cash assistance provided under the Family Employment Program (FEP) or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and other general assistance. You can request a benefits statement for the state of Utah here: https://jobs.utah.gov/mycase/. You can request a benefits statement from the Social Security Administration at the link here: https://www.ssa.gov.
5. Loan Applications (Divorce Only)
If you are applying for custody or if you have not applied for any loans in the past 12 months skip #5.
Please provide copies of your loan applications for any loans taken out, or loans which are pending, within the last 12 months and all documents provided to the lender in support of the loan applications.
6. Real Estate Documents (Divorce Only)
If you are applying for custody or do not have an interest in any real estate skip #6.
Real Estate Documents. Real estate documents. Documents verifying the value of all real estate in which you have an interest: Copies of (1) recent appraisals, (2) tax valuations, (3) refinance documents showing the value of all real estate you have an interest in. If the real estate is located in Salt Lake County you may obtain a tax valuation by visiting the Salt Lake County Treasurer’s Office webpage.
7. Financial Accounts
Copies of financial statements for the last three months for ALL financial accounts held in your name solely or jointly with your spouse including checking, savings, mortgage, retirement, money market, credit card accounts, certificates, investments accounts, as well as online transfer accounts, such as Venmo, Zelle, Paypal, Cashapp, Apple pay and other related applications You may need to contact your financial institutions to request these records.
Identity
The following list of personal identification documents are required by Legal Aid Society and can be photos taken with your phone and attached to an email or photocopies dropped off in person:
8. Photo ID
Color copy of your government issued photo ID (such as a driver license, passport or identity card). It must be current for us to file.
9. Social Security Cards
Copy of your Social Security card. You can request a copy of your social security card at: https://www.ssa.gov/ssnumber/. This does not apply if you are applying for a divorce case you DO NOT have any children in common with the opposing party.
If you do not have social security cards for you, your children, or both you may present one of the following documents in its place, which contain your full name and full social security number and the full name(s) and full social security number(s) of the minor child(ren) born to you and the person you are filing against:
Complete federal and state income tax returns, including Form W-2, Form 1099, and Form K-1 for the previous year if you are unmarried and applying for assistance with a custody case; or
Complete federal and state income tax returns, including Form W-2, Form 1099, and Form K-1 for the previous TWO years if you are married and applying for assistance with a divorce case;
10. Birth Certificates
Copies of Birth Certificates for you and the child/ren you have in common with the person you are filing against. Do not include adult children (unless you are seeking child support for an adult disabled child you have in common with the other party) or any child/ren you do not have in common with the person you are filing against. You can request birth certificates through the office of vital records. The following link is for the State of Utah: https://vitalrecords.utah.gov/.
Court Required Documents and Service Work Sheet
ALL other documents must be photocopies of the original document–screenshots of court documents or financial documentation will NOT be accepted.
11. Vital Statistics (Divorce Only)
If you are applying for custody or if your Divorce case has already been filed with the court skip #11.
A Utah Department of Health Certificate must be completely filled out and filed with a Petition for Divorce. When the divorce is complete this is what the court will provide to the Office of Vital Records and Statistics to record your divorce.
12. Service Worksheet
If your divorce or custody case has already been filed with the court skip #12.
Please submit a completed Service Worksheet with the current home and/or work address of the party you are filing against. Legal Aid Society of Salt Lake needs this worksheet completed in order to have the opposing party personally served with a Summons and Petition for Divorce or Parentage/Custody.
13. Court Case Filings
If your divorce or custody case has NOT been filed with the court skip #13.
If your case is already filed in the Third District Court, please provide copies of the following: the petition, answer and/or counterpetition, as they were filed or served. If you do not have copies of these filings, you can get copies through MyCase. Instructions on how to create a MyCase account can be found here: https://www.utcourts.gov/en/self-help/services/mycase.html
14. ORS Child Support Order
If you have not opened a case with ORS skip #14.
If you are already receiving child support from the person you are filing against through the Office of Recovery Services, you will be required to obtain a copy of your ORS Child Support Order and Child Support Worksheet. You can obtain a copy of an ORS order and child support worksheet by emailing orswebcss@utah.gov or calling +1 (801) 536-8500. You MUST include your ORS case number when emailing or calling.
15. Document Domestic Violence
If you have not had a protective order case or if Legal Aid Society represented you skip #15.
If you have filed or had a protective order entered and Legal Aid Society of Salt Lake did not represent you, please include a copy of the filings and the protective order. You can get a copy of your protective order by going to the applicable court or using MyCase. Instructions on how to create a MyCase account can be found here: https://www.utcourts.gov/en/self-help/services/mycase.html
16. Police Reports
If you have no police reports have been opened skip #16.
If you or the opposing party have filed a police report regarding any domestic incident between you and the other party, please provide a copy of those police reports. If you do not already have a copy of any police report you will need to contact the Police department where you filed the Police Report to make that request.
17. DCFS/Juvenile Court Orders
If there is no DCFS or Juvenile court case skip #17.
If you there is any active case regarding DCFS or any case regarding the minor children in Juvenile Court we need all reports regarding those cases. Legal Aid Society is unable to request those or access those on your behalf. For DCFS, to get that report you can request that report directly from DCFS. You can find instructions for DCFS reports here: https://dcfs.utah.gov/resources/records-request/. To get the Juvenile court case documents you will need to visit the court where the case is/was being adjudicated and request those directly from the Juvenile court clerk for the judge assigned to the case.
At this time as we are dealing with a high volume of applications we do ask that you collect all of the documents and provide them together at the same time.
If you have all of your documents ready, or if you have questions you can email intakecoordinator@lasslc.org.