Changing a custody or visitation order.
A custody order is a judgment, and Wyoming does not reopen judgments because one parent has thought better of them. To change where the children live or when they see each parent, the parent asking must prove a material change in circumstances since the order was entered, and then prove the new arrangement serves the children better. The first step is where most petitions are won or lost, and it is decided on what has happened, not on what either parent wishes had.
Call or text me. Clients get my cell number from day one, and I answer. Just been served? Here's what happens next.
Two steps, in a fixed order.
The court may modify custody or visitation only on "a showing by either parent of a material change in circumstances since the entry of the order in question" (W.S. § 20-2-204(c)). Since the order: something the judge did not know, or that did not exist, when she signed it.
Only after the change is proved does the court ask whether the modification "would be in the best interests of the children" under the same eleven factors that decided the original order. A judge who finds no material change never reaches them.
"Either parent may petition to enforce or modify any court order regarding custody and visitation" (W.S. § 20-2-204(a)), in the court that entered it, with a certified copy of the order attached (W.S. § 20-2-203(c)). Grandparents and new spouses cannot.
What has counted, and what has not.
Not contemplated, affecting the children, and large enough
The Wyoming Supreme Court has filled in the three words the statute leaves open. The change must have happened after the order, or at least not have been before the judge when she entered it; a problem that existed at the divorce and was argued then cannot be recycled. It must affect the children's welfare, not only a parent's convenience. And it must be significant relative to what is being asked: a change that justifies moving a Wednesday overnight will not justify moving the children's primary home. Behind all of it is the principle that a final judgment is supposed to stay final, and the parent asking to reopen it carries the burden of showing why this one should not.
The statute itself names one change: "repeated, unreasonable failure by the custodial parent to allow visitation to the other parent in violation of an order may be considered as evidence of a material change of circumstances" (W.S. § 20-2-204(c)). And it excludes one: a service member's deployment or mobilization "shall not, alone, constitute a material change in circumstances" (W.S. § 20-2-205(a)(iv)), though the order can be temporarily adjusted while the parent is away.
Relocation
A move is the change I see most. Every order requires a parent who plans to change home city or state to give thirty days' written notice to the other parent and to the clerk of district court, with the date and the destination (W.S. § 20-2-202(a)(iii)). Notice is not permission, and it is not a change by itself; what the Supreme Court has recognized since 2012 is that a custodial parent's relocation, together with the distance it creates and its effect on the other parent's visitation, can be the material change that reopens custody. Whether it does depends on the distance, the children's ages, the reason for the move and the schedule before it. A move from East Jackson to Wilson is logistics. A move to Boise is a custody case, and it should be filed before the boxes are packed. My post on relocation cases walks through how courts weigh them.
- 01The petition: a certified copy of the existing order attached, the change pleaded with dates, and the schedule you want in well defined terms
- 02Service under the Rules of Civil Procedure; twenty days to answer, thirty if served outside Wyoming
- 03Rule 26 initial disclosures and a scheduling conference set by the court once the answer is in; mediation if either parent asks
- 04A guardian ad litem appointed if custody is contested; home visits, interviews with teachers and providers
- 05Discovery: school and medical records, texts and co-parenting app logs, witnesses who have no side
- 06The hearing: the material change proved first, then the eleven factors; the children interviewed in chambers if at all
- 07A new order, or a stipulated modification signed by both parents and the judge, which replaces the old one from the day it is entered
The usual sequence. Where a child's safety requires it, a temporary order can be sought at the start on a verified motion with a short, specific showing of why the court must act now.
The changes that bring parents back.
- The schedule stopped working. An order written for a preschooler meets middle school, hockey, and a bus that leaves Hoback at 6:50. The change is the children's lives, not their birthdays, and it is proved with a school calendar and a log of what happened each week when the order was followed as written. The parenting schedules page covers what a schedule that fits an age looks like.
- A home changed. A new partner who should not be around children, a parent whose drinking has reached the school's attention, a parent whose work now keeps him on the road. Proved with records and third-party witnesses; a parent's own account of the other home is the weakest evidence in the file.
- One parent moved, or wants to. Jackson families are often two-home families already, with a parent commuting from Victor or Alpine, and a move that adds an hour over the pass in winter can be a material change where the same miles across a city would not. Distance is the eighth factor for a reason.
- The order is being ignored. Missed exchanges, refused phone calls, a parent who treats the other as a visitor. The statute makes the pattern itself evidence of a material change, and the same petition can ask for contempt, fees and make-up time under W.S. § 20-2-204(b); the enforcement page covers that half.
The guardian, the children, the stipulation, and two states.
What a modification hearing looks like in Teton County, agreed changes, and orders from another state
In Teton County
Every custody modification in the county is heard by the same district judge who entered the order being modified, or inherited it, and her practices are published. If custody is contested at a hearing or trial she requires a guardian ad litem, a lawyer whose client is the children, who is expected to gather information on both living situations and interview teachers, daycare providers and people without a side. Children are not put on the stand in front of their parents; when the judge hears from a child it is in chambers, with the court reporter and both lawyers present and the parents excluded, and each parent and the guardian may submit up to three questions. Mediation is ordered if either parent requests it, and most cases that are going to settle do so there, usually after the guardian has reported. The court sits in temporary courtrooms at 250 East Simpson Avenue while the county builds its Justice Center; the courthouse page has the details.
What the new order has to say
A modified order is held to the same standard as the first one: custody "in well defined terms" and visitation "in enough detail to promote understanding and compliance," with the cost of transporting the children allocated between the parents (W.S. § 20-2-201(d), § 20-2-202(a)). Many of the petitions I see could have been avoided by a first order that said who drives on a Friday in February and what happens when the pass closes. The petition should attach the schedule you want, written to that standard, so the judge is choosing between two complete plans rather than being asked to draft one. A modified custody order also usually moves the overnight count, which changes the child support arithmetic; the two petitions are often filed together, and the support modification page explains the separate standard that applies to the money.
Agreed changes
Parents who agree can file a stipulated modification with a proposed order, and in an agreed case the court does not require either of them to prove a material change; the judge reviews the stipulation for the children's interests and signs it, and from that day it is the order. What the court will not do is enforce a change the parents never filed. Proposed orders go through the Clerk of District Court, not by email to chambers, and when a case settles the court's staff are told at once, with a date for the papers.
Orders from another state, and parents in two states
The court that entered the order keeps "continuing subject matter jurisdiction to enforce or modify" it, subject to the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (W.S. § 20-2-203(a)). In practice that means a Wyoming order follows a family that moves, and another state's order that moved here cannot be changed by a Wyoming court until the other state has lost or given up jurisdiction, which generally happens when neither parent nor the child still lives there. A certified copy of a Wyoming order can be filed in the district court of any county where a parent now lives if neither lives in the original county (W.S. § 20-2-203(c)). The modifications overview covers the interstate rules for support as well, and my post on which state decides custody and support explains why the two can end up in different courts.
What parents ask about changing an order.
How hard is it to change custody in Wyoming?
Does my child getting older count as a change in circumstances?
My ex is moving out of state with the children. Can I stop it?
Do we need a guardian ad litem to modify custody in Teton County?
Can we change the schedule ourselves without going back to court?
What if the other parent keeps refusing my visitation?
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