The red Jackson Hole aerial tram against a deep blue summer sky, with the Tetons and the valley floor below — Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Family law · Jackson, Wyoming

Family law in Jackson Hole is decided in one courtroom, and I work in it.

Your divorce, custody, or support case will be decided by one district judge in one courtroom on East Simpson Avenue, and the decree she signs will govern your money and your children for years. Most cases settle first, on terms set by what that courtroom would do. I build cases for that courtroom. I was admitted in 1995, have tried more than seventy cases to the bench, and my office is two blocks from the court.

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(307) 300-2496

40 E Simpson Ave, Jackson · Monday–Friday

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Before you call

Sign nothing. Move nothing.

No kitchen-table agreement, no transfers, no moving the children. Have four dates and your spouse's full name ready so the conflicts check can run first.

Call or text me. Clients get my cell number from day one, and I answer. Just been served? Here's what happens next.

Three things to know about family cases in Teton County.

One courtroom.

Every contested family case in the county is decided by one district judge, Hon. Melissa M. Owens, on the bench since January 2022 after a practice that emphasized family law. Most cases settle, on terms shaped by what she would do.

Three standards.

Property is divided "as appears just and equitable" (W.S. § 20-2-114). Children are placed by their "best interests," against eleven listed factors (W.S. § 20-2-201). Child support follows a presumptive table (W.S. § 20-2-304). No alimony formula, no presumption of an equal split. What fills that latitude is evidence.

Disclosure is the rule.

A month after the answer is due, each spouse owes the other a schedule of every account, asset, debt, retirement plan, and source of income (W.R.C.P. 26(a)(1.1)), and a sworn financial affidavit goes in before any support order. Hiding money here is not a strategy; it is a rule violation with a paper trail.

How a family case moves here.

The distance from complaint to decree is set by how much you disagree and how fast the money can be put on paper.

Complaint and answer. The spouse who is served has twenty days to answer, thirty if served outside Wyoming. In Teton County, a restraining order keeping assets where they are and the children in the state is entered on request at the start, so it is often the first filing. The scheduling conference that follows is a phone call with the judge's assistant.
Disclosures. A month after the answer is due the financial schedules change hands, then appraisals and, in a contested custody case, the guardian ad litem the court requires. This is where the months go, and where most cases are quietly won.
Mediation. Nearly every contested case goes to mediation before trial; the court may order it and must when either spouse asks (W.R.C.P. 40(b)). It works best after the disclosures are complete and the valuations are in hand.
Decree. Agreed cases finish on paper a few weeks past the statute's twenty-day minimum, often without a hearing. What is not agreed is tried to the judge alone; there are no juries in Wyoming family cases (W.R.C.P. 38(a)). Many motions along the way are decided on the papers, without a hearing, which is why the writing matters.

Teton County

District Court, Ninth Judicial District. Hon. Melissa M. Owens, district judge; Anne C. Sutton, Clerk of District Court. The courtroom is equipped for video appearances. Where court sits now, and how the courtroom runs.

250 E Simpson Ave, Jackson (temporary quarters since February 2026) · PO Box 4460, Jackson, WY 83001 · 307-733-2533
A new Justice Center is planned for the former courthouse site at 180 S King St

Elsewhere in Wyoming

Same statutes, different courthouse. Sublette County's district court sits in Pinedale, also in the Ninth District; Lincoln County's in Kemmerer, in the Third. I am admitted throughout Wyoming and take family cases in the neighboring counties regularly, elsewhere by arrangement.

Sublette County District Court, Pinedale · Lincoln County District Court, Kemmerer

A snowy street in Jackson, Wyoming, with Snow King Mountain rising behind the town — Jackson, Wyoming · the courthouse and my office are a few blocks apart · Photograph by Aaron Herzberg

Settling from strength.

Jackson Hole is a small town with an unusual balance sheet: owners of the businesses on the square and the ranches up the valley, wealth that sits in a company or a fund somewhere else, professionals with an ordinary income and an extraordinary mortgage, seasonal workers on the ski calendar, and a remarkable number of people married to someone who lives in another state. Each of those facts changes where the case can be filed, what the court can reach, and how support is calculated. The decree will be enforced by this court for years, so I build cases for this court.

Almost everyone who walks into my office wants to settle, and almost everyone should. The terms are decided by what each side believes would happen at trial, and a spouse who arrives at mediation with complete disclosures, a defensible valuation, a parenting proposal the court would sign, and a lawyer who has tried cases in that courtroom is negotiating from a different position than a spouse who arrives with a grievance. I do not escalate for its own sake. I prepare for trial early enough that nobody has to find out whether it was needed.

The consultation is a working session, not a sales call.

Paid, by appointment, in my office on Simpson Avenue or by video. You leave with a plan: which statute decides each part of your case, the realistic range, and what to do in the next thirty days.

Schedule a consultation (307) 300-2496

Asked at the first meeting.

Do I have to live in Wyoming to file here?

One of you does. The residency rule is sixty days in Wyoming before filing, for either spouse, with an exception for couples married here where one of them has stayed. The spouse who lives here counts as a resident even if the other does not, and the case is filed in the county where either spouse resides. Children are a separate question: a Wyoming court can decide custody only once Wyoming is their home state, generally six consecutive months, so a family that has just arrived may be able to divorce here before it can litigate custody here.

How long does a divorce take in Teton County?

The statute sets a floor, not a ceiling: no decree may be entered less than twenty days from the day the complaint is filed. A couple who agree on everything and file complete paperwork can be divorced a few weeks after that, sometimes on affidavits without a hearing. A contested case with children, a business, or property in more than one state is measured in months, because disclosures, appraisals, and any custody evaluation must be finished before the case can be mediated or tried, and one judge sets the trial calendar for the county. The divorce page lays out the statute's calendar; the step-by-step page shows where the months go.

Do we have to go to court?

Not always, and less often than people expect. When both spouses agree on the terms, the Wyoming Judicial Branch provides an affidavit that lets the judge sign the decree without anyone appearing; some judges still ask for a short hearing, about fifteen minutes when there is an agreement. A contested case involves the courthouse more: a hearing on temporary orders if one is needed, occasional motion hearings, a pretrial conference, and a bench trial if mediation fails. Mediation itself is not court; it happens in a conference room with a mediator the parties choose or the court appoints, and most contested cases in this county end there.

My spouse lives in another state. Can I still use a Wyoming lawyer?

Yes, and you will need one, because the case will be here. If you meet the residency rule, Wyoming can end the marriage regardless of where your spouse lives. A spouse served outside Wyoming gets thirty days rather than twenty to answer, and a spouse who cannot be found can be served by publication in a divorce case. Whether a Wyoming court can also divide property held elsewhere or order support from a spouse who has never lived here depends on that spouse's connections to the state, which is one of the first things I look at. Custody follows the children's home state. Each spouse needs separate counsel; I cannot advise both of you.

What does the consultation involve?

Booking it through the contact page or by phone, a conflicts check on your spouse's name, and then an hour, in my office or by video, spent on your situation. Bring what you have: the last two years of tax returns, recent statements for the accounts you can name, any prenuptial agreement or existing court order, and a page of dates. Do not bring your spouse, and do not send confidential documents before the conflicts check clears. You leave knowing which statute governs each part of your case, what the realistic range looks like, and what to do in the next thirty days. Whether you hire me afterward is a separate decision.

Do you handle cases outside Teton County?

Yes. I am admitted throughout Wyoming, and the family statutes are the same in every county. My office is in Jackson, so Teton County is home, and I regularly take cases in the neighboring counties: Sublette to the south, where the district court sits in Pinedale, and Lincoln to the southwest, where it sits in Kemmerer. Elsewhere in the state I take family matters by arrangement, and the courts' willingness to hold hearings other than trial by video makes distance less of an obstacle than it once was. What changes from county to county is not the law but the judge and the local habits, and I will tell you whether I know the courtroom your case will be in.

Tool · two minutesWyoming child support calculatorThe statute's table, gross to net, shared custody. Run it before anyone quotes you a number. Run the calculator →

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Start with a confidential conversation with Aaron Herzberg.

A consultation is a scheduled working session, in person in Jackson or by video, in which we go through your situation and I tell you what I would do. It is a paid working session, not a sales pitch. The fee is quoted when we schedule. Your note reaches me directly, my office runs the conflicts check and puts the meeting on my calendar, and you can call or text any time.

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40 E Simpson Ave, Jackson, WY 83001 · by appointment · video consultations for out-of-state clients · info@puzzlegroup.com