From Guesswork to Guidelines - The Adoption of Unifrom Child Support Guidelines in Utah

This Article describes the development and enactment of statewide uniform child support guidelines in Utah. The Article first focuses on the impetus for the judiciary's involvement, including federal statutory changes and the inadequacy of current child support determinations. The development process then is described, including the existing legal and political environment, the resources used by the Utah Judicial Council's Child Support Guideline Task Force ("Task Force") and the policy choices that ultimately guided the selection of a guideline methodology. Finally, the Article explains the political obstacles to implementation of uniform child support guidelines and compares the guidelines implemented by the Utah Judicial Council with those ultimately adopted by the Utah Legislature.