So today, Elder James Hamula's lawyer filed a motion asking to seal the court record. They want the public not to have access to any information filed in the divorce. We shall see if its granted or not.

Sounds like he's pretty guilty to me.

Does Utah have "no-fault" divorce? Because if it does, nothing (as in facts) regarding the reason for the divorce needs to be presented. "Irreconcilable differences have arisen leading to an irremediable breakdown of the marriage..." is kinda how the language goes here in CA.

If Utah is a no-fault state, then it makes sense that the reason for privacy would have to do with finances and child custody. If the wife is contesting custody (which the courts like to set at 50-50), her motion may contain information that ex-Bro. Hamula doesn't want bandied about on Los Interwebz. Like what a poor father he is and what facts she has to support such a contention.

That's my thought on the matter.

Mr Hamula is 60, so child support/custody is likely not an issue.

Utah is a no-fault state (are there any states now that aren't no-fault?). My guess is the request for sealed records is solely to keep financial details private, like perhaps how much he was paid as a GA.

Ah! So is Utah a community property state? Does she want half of the supposed million/millions he received when he was elevated to GA status? Wouldn't it be fun if he'd agreed to 'refund' the GA money if he fell away or was excommunicated and now she wants to say that she is entitled to half that GA Bonus money!!

Thankfully Utah is not a community state!

Divorce and family law records are already private. But sealed is a different matter. Private means court orders and the docket listing whats been filed are the only things available to the public. (Petitions, motions, affidavits are not available to the public.)

Sealed usually means the docket and all court orders are sealed against anyone seeing them. So you can't even see the case exists if you look for the docket.

Sealing records is highly unusual as the policy is that courts are public and the final orders are public.

There is no risk of personal information in a divorce being made public since the filings are private, so finances cannot be the reason. It has to be that there is public interest in the reasons for their divorce and any motions that may be filed and would appear on the docket and any resulting orders that are normally public.

It is highly unusual for a court to grant such an order--it has not been granted yet. Often it could be if it involves a celebrity but the reasons to seal are becoming more difficult to meet. My guess is that the allegations of what happened would appear on a motion. I do think they still have underage children at home. We shall see.

Does the church give severance pay?

What's he going to pay his stay at home wife alimony with.

His wife is a lawyer.

Interesting.

Everytime I scrub a chapel toilet so that Heavenly Father can save more money into his sacred LLCs I shall give thanks to God for inspiredly calling great holy men like James Hamula to be a General Authority. Its unthinkable to suggest that he'd try to seal any records as being a true Church means that honest/transparency are of the utmost importance so all that time he spent amongst the Brethren must have caused him to be so super honest and transparent on all things :)