If I’m Getting Divorced, When Can I Get Married Again?

So, you find yourself getting divorced.

Problem is, you also find yourself wanting to get remarried. Like, remarried right now.

So, when can you get remarried in Utah?

Well, you have to wait until you are actually divorced to remarry:

“Neither party to a divorce proceeding which dissolves their marriage by decree may marry any person other than the spouse from whom the divorce was granted until it becomes absolute.  If an appeal is taken, the divorce is not absolute until after affirmance of the decree.”

Utah Code, Section 30-3-8.

When you are actually divorced is usually pretty straightforward. It’s almost always when the judge signs the Divorce Decree. Sometimes, however, the water gets muddied a little.

Sometimes, a Divorce Decree won’t become absolute until some point after your Divorce Decree is signed. This usually happens if you went to trial and the case is appealed. (If this does happen, the judge will tell you the divorce is not absolute until whatever date in the future. Judges don’t hide the ball about things like this.)

Even when a case is appealed, though, the judge will almost always grant people a bifurcated divorce. This means the judge will order that a couple is legally divorced, but the case will go forward on appeal and people will fight over everything but the actual being divorced part.

So, the rule of thumb is that you’re divorced and able to remarry when the judge signs your Divorce Decree.