Woods Cross lies near the bottom of the Great Salt Lake Basin, approximately eight miles north of Salt Lake City. It was officially chartered in 1935 by the owners of the Reservoir and Pipeline Company who pooled their Mill Creek water shares and transferred their capital stock and assets to the new city board of trustees. Woods Cross was originally an unincorporated area extending from the southern boundary of Centerville south to the Salt Lake County line and including the areas and communities of Val Verda, Orchard, North Salt Lake, West Bountiful, among others. In 1847, after the initial Mormon settlement of the Salt Lake Valley, Peregrine Sessions went north to locate pasture lands. He selected a spot near Cudahy Lane, where he spent the winter with is family watching over the herds. The next year, 1848, other settlers arrived and built cellars and dugouts along and near the banks of the Jordan River. The historical development of Woods Cross is directly linked to water. Pioneer settlers in 1848 selected the area’s rich bottom lands to establish their farms generations of fertile silt deposits from the overflowing channels of Mill Creek created some of the best farm land in the state.

The mountain watersheds east of Woods Cross retained rain and melting snows until saturation sent runoff water into the boggy meadows and sloughs of the bottoms. Here some of the water was trapped and absorbed into underground aquifers preserving fresh water along the eastern edge of the Great Salt Lake. Among the early settlers of the area was Daniel Wood, for whom Woods Cross is named. By 1855 he was the wealthiest man in Woods Cross with land, houses, and personal possessions worth nearly $14,000. He built a school in 1854, a church in 1863 and in 1869 gave the lower portion of his rich farm gratis for a railroad depot and crossing–called Woods Crossing, then shortened to Woods Cross. As the watersheds in Bountiful were cleared to build homes and the sloughs along the Jordan were drained for commercial and industrial development, runoff had no place to go. Woods Cross townspeople struggled to control and utilize this water effectively. They built wooden troughs and ditches along the foothills to channel the water where they wanted it to go and they installed drains in the bottoms to carry the excess to the lake. They also built holding ponds and underground cisterns to save the runoff until the residents had a need for it. Not until a federally funded water project in the 1980s built concrete containing walls, collecting basins, and lined ditches carry the overflow to the Great Salt Lake did the city’s surface water problems disappear. The Lower Ditch of the Mill Creek water system was eventually replaced by the Lower Bonneville Canal.

The canal impoverished the city at the same time that it provided an adequate and consistent water supply for the first time. The Bonneville project cost over $1,000,000 — a staggering sum which local farmers could hardly pay by themselves. Almost every tract of land in Woods Cross was mortgaged to meet the bonds and in danger of reversion to the state for tax debts. When those bonds were finally retired in 1946-47, the bondholders had lost over 80 percent of their original investment. County Commissioner Calvin Rampton, later Governor of Utah, took the desperate condition of the people to the United States Senate. County remedies to reduce the past-due monies were not enough. Without government relief the people faced relocation and the city continuous litigation. Low-interest aid was granted, the bonds were cleared. By 1970, Woods Cross had become the third fastest growing city in the state of Utah, reaching a population of 3,124–up from 1,098 in 1960. The population continued to grow at a rate of more than a thousand a decade, reaching 5,384 residents in 1990.

The unprecedented growth alarmed the city. With support from local residents, city officials preserved their hard won water resources by keeping town boundaries tight. Woods Cross allowed more aggressive towns like Bountiful and North Salt Lake to annex shopping centers and industrial parks and to supply them with water. Woods Cross and its population are visibly committed to their “rural way of life.” The LDS chapel, the park, and the city hall form the hub of the town. Small local businesses and limited heavy industry ring the city. Subdivision housing separates the two. Local residents (60 percent ) told interviewers they preferred the rural life-style and less complicated life of Woods Cross to city life in Salt Lake City or Bountiful. Many new residents have selected Woods Cross as a place to raise their families. High-density housing and industrial complexes have consistently been defeated when proposed as developments for the city. Recent state and federal matching grants have enabled Woods Cross to mark its boundaries and welcome newcomers with evergreens and flowers.

Bankruptcy And My Divorce In Woods Cross Utah

Interesting combinations can happen when bankruptcy is paired with divorce. Whether it features a recent divorce, a current and ongoing divorce process, or even when one is in the near future we can help in all kinds of situations. Bankruptcy and my divorce is something that should be timed and planned if at all possible. First you have to understand that these are two distinct legal actions (bankruptcy and divorce) and will not take place simultaneously in the same courtroom. Bankruptcy is part of the Federal Court System and divorce is part of a State Court System. You need to understand and your marriage status (including expenses and income) can greatly impact the type and outcome of filing for bankruptcy. If you are contemplating filing for bankruptcy and divorce, then timing can be critical. Your bankruptcy attorney and your divorce attorney should be working together on your behalf if you try and do them at the same time. In general, bankruptcy takes precedence over your divorce. Filing for bankruptcy during a divorce can delay the distribution of assets and liabilities until the bankruptcy is completed. In other words, you have to finish your bankruptcy before a divorce can be finished. As a result, there is usually no real way to do the property division during a bankruptcy. Also, bankruptcy handles debts tied to a person and it can affect how debts are treated in your divorce. Finally, bankruptcy courts treat your income differently depending on whether you are married, separated, or divorced when the case is filed.

Why File for Bankruptcy First?

If you and your spouse are on good terms, then consider a bankruptcy before the divorce. By filing a bankruptcy jointly the marital debts will be addressed under one bankruptcy case. You will also wipe out your joint debts together and may also be able to increase your property exemption amounts. Bankruptcy may also eliminate contracts that neither one of you wants, like car leases that cost too much or mortgages on houses that are completely underwater. It also may make the divorce action go more smoothly since there is very little in debt to be argued about. For example if you qualify for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy you should be finish in about 90 days.

Why File for Divorce First?

Filing for divorce first might be a good idea if your joint income disqualifies you for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. In some cases, both spouses may qualify for Chapter 7 bankruptcy individually after a divorce even if they could not do it jointly. Proper planning in a divorce may protect certain assets outside from the bankruptcy process. Working with an experienced bankruptcy lawyer can be useful to maximize your benefit from filing for bankruptcy. Also by divorcing first, it will allow for support considerations. For example, if you will owe a lot of child or spousal support it will help to know that actual amount before bankruptcy. Sometimes the child support can affect how your bankruptcy will proceed. So do yourself a favor get an experienced attorney to help you with your bankruptcy if divorce is on the horizon.

Alimony in Woods Cross Utah

As if the emotional toll of divorce weren’t enough, the financial aspect can be devastating. A crucial task your Woods Cross Utah divorce lawyer must help you tackle from the get-go is to separate the emotional aspect of the case from the financial one. No one relishes the idea of paying their “ex” alimony. No matter how justified your emotions may be, being naïve or ignorant about how Utah law and Utah judges deal with alimony can leave you vulnerable. If you have been the primary breadwinner in your marriage, and your marriage lasted more than a few years, you will likely be paying alimony. This is because under Utah law, alimony is neither a punishment nor a reward-it is an equalizer. It either equalizes the parties’ standard of living enjoyed during the marriage, or it equalizes the financial hardship that both parties will suffer post-divorce.

One common misconception is to think that a Utah judge will not order someone to pay alimony in an amount beyond their ability to pay. “If you want to avoid paying alimony, also known as spousal support, but it’s clear from your circumstances that you will be ordered to pay alimony, then there’s most likely no legally and equitably valid ways you can prevent having to pay alimony.” That is because Woods Cross Utah laws are very strict when it comes to ordering alimony when one of the spouses has the ability to support himself or herself financially month to month and has some surplus money to share with his/her spouse. That, of course, if the other spouse can prove that he or she is unable to support himself/herself financially month to month. Despite this, payor spouses (the spouses ordered to pay alimony) still look for legal ways to avoid paying spousal support. And more often than not, their attempts to avoid being ordered to pay alimony come up empty. This is especially true if the spouse by an experienced alimony attorney in Woods Cross Utah or elsewhere in Utah.

Legal Ways To Avoid Paying Alimony In Utah

More likely than not, a spouse may attempt to either falsely appear impoverished or even voluntarily impoverish himself or herself (by voluntarily quitting their job shortly before or after divorce) in order to avoid paying alimony. But such attempts to avoid paying spousal support are illegal in Woods Cross Utah and will not get you far.
Still, there might be legal options available to avoid having to pay alimony to your spouse in Utah:
• The financial condition and needs of your spouse do not meet the required threshold under Utah law;
• Your spouse’s earning capacity allows him or her to earn a living and produce income on their own;
• Your spouse’s work is not affected by her or his need to care for your children;
• You do not have the ability to provide alimony (there is no surplus money in your month to month income);
• You were not married for very long;
• Your spouse does not have custody of the child requiring support;
• Your marriage ended because of your spouse’s fault (having an affair with or engaging in a sexual relationship with another person, knowingly and intentionally causing, threatening or attempting to cause physical harm to the other party or your child, substantially undermining the financial stability of you or your family during the marriage); or
• Your spouse is cohabiting with another person, who has the ability to satisfy your spouse’s financial needs.

Grounds for Divorce in Woods Cross Utah

In all divorce cases, couples must provide the court with a legal ground to terminate the marriage. Although there are different ways to apply for dissolution of marriage (divorce), every case requires the applicant to list a specific reason for the request. Some states allow parties to file for a fault divorce, which is where you claim that your spouse’s behavior during the marriage caused the relationship to fail. Acceptable grounds for fault divorce vary depending on where you live, but the most common include adultery, drug or alcohol abuse, or abandonment. All states permit couples to request a no-fault divorce, meaning that neither spouse is individually responsible for the breakup. Typically, no-fault divorces are based on irreconcilable differences. In these cases, couples need to prove to the court that despite your best efforts, there are too many issues in the relationship for reconciliation to be possible. The most appealing factor of no-fault divorce is that spouses can ask the court to terminate their marriage without the need for finger pointing or mud-slinging. Many states also offer a divorce based on a separation for a specific period of time.

Utah and No-Fault Divorce

If you’re not interested in airing your dirty laundry in a public courtroom setting, no-fault divorce is probably the best option for ending your relationship. Utah courts understand that many people, primarily parents, want to preserve what’s left of their bond after a divorce, so it allows couples to pursue a divorce using its no-fault procedures. For divorcing couples to be successful, the parties will need to explain to the court that their marriage has suffered irreconcilable differences. Judges don’t usually make it a habit of questioning the motives behind a no-fault divorce, so if you are willing to testify, under oath, that you and your spouse can’t work things out, a judge will grant your divorce. If you can’t prove irreconcilable differences to the court, you can also apply for a no-fault divorce if you and your spouse have lived separate and apart from each other for a minimum of three years. No-fault divorce is by far the most popular method of ending a marriage, but for some couples, it’s not the right choice. As an alternative, Woods Cross Utah gives couples the option of petitioning the court for a divorce based on a spouse’s bad conduct during the marriage.
The acceptable reasons for a fault divorce in Utah include:
• impotency at the time of the marriage
• adultery by either party
• willful desertion for more than one year
• habitual drunkenness
• conviction of a felony
• cruel treatment to the extent of causing bodily injury or great mental distress, and willful neglect to provide the standard necessities of life.

Other Requirements for Divorce

Like most states, Utah has a residency requirement that you must meet before you can file for divorce. Couples must demonstrate that the filing party has been a resident, continuously, for a minimum of three months. Additionally, there is a 90-day waiting period before the court can hold a hearing for your divorce. This waiting period was created by legislators to provide couples with a “cooling off” period, which may or may not assist the spouses in making meaningful, divorce-related issues, like property division and spousal support. Either party can ask the court to waive this waiting period. The person requesting a waiver would need to file a motion (request) with the court and provide the judge with extraordinary circumstances for their application.

Divorce Lawyer

When you need legal help with a divorce in Woods Cross Utah, please call Ascent Law LLC for your free consultation (801) 676-5506. We want to help you.