Utah Court of Appeals hears dispute over daycare, "right of first refusal" and 50/50 parenting time in Duffin v. Duffin

The Utah Court of Appeals heard oral argument in Duffin v. Duffin (case name used in court record) in which appellant James ("Jimmy") Duffin challenges aspects of a trial-court custody and parent-time order, focusing on whether the trial court erred by allowing the children's mother to place them in daycare without treating that placement as a major legal-custody decision.

Julie Nelson, appellate counsel for James Duffin, told the panel that "the heart of this case is that my client dad would like to spend more time with his children," and argued that the trial court had nonetheless favored daycare over expanding the father's time. Nelson said her client has a flexible, full-time job and that his mother would provide care when he could not, and she cited advisory guidance in the Utah code that, she said, prefers parental care over surrogate care and also accounts for lower-cost childcare options.

The appellant urged the court to overturn two related aspects of the decree: the physical custody/parent-time allocation (currently described in the record as roughly 35.1% parent time for James) and the trial court's narrowing of the right of first refusal to "only on overnights." Nelson said those two changes together keep children in daycare more often than necessary and that, under the equal-parent-time statute she cited, her client meets the statutory criteria for expanded time.

Appellee counsel (referred to in the record as Mr. Hinkins) responded that the trial judge, Judge Bates, had examined the statutory factors and found the children were "thriving" under the status…