Wyoming Gives You the Court Forms. This Guide Gives You the Plan.
Wyoming's District Courts provide free self-help packets for divorce with children. You can download them right now from wyocourts.gov. They contain the Complaint, the Decree, the Confidential Financial Affidavit — every form you need to file.
What they don't contain is a single line of guidance on how to fill them out.
When you open the standard Decree of Divorce with Children, it demands a comprehensive parenting plan — specific terms for weekday routines, holiday schedules, transportation costs, and decision-making authority. But it gives you nothing to work from. No schedule options to compare. No explanation of how your custody arrangement affects child support. No checklist of the financial documents you need to gather before the mandatory disclosure deadline.
You're left staring at blank spaces that will govern your relationship with your children for years, making permanent decisions with no framework for thinking them through.
The Custody Process Blueprint
This guide is a structured, step-by-step process map built exclusively for Wyoming's family court system. It doesn't sell you forms — the state gives those away free. Instead, it walks you through the strategic decisions, organizational steps, and practical logistics that the forms assume you already understand.
It bridges the gap between downloading a blank court packet and filing a complete, legally sound parenting plan.
What's Inside
- Wyoming custody law in plain language — the real distinction between legal and physical custody, why there's no 50/50 presumption under current law (the bills that tried to create one both failed), and what the Gurney v. Gurney standard actually means for your case
- Best-interests self-assessment — a worksheet built around the eleven statutory factors under W.S. § 20-2-201(a) that judges use to evaluate every custody proposal, so you can document your caregiving history before you write a word on your court forms
- Visual schedule builder — side-by-side calendar layouts for alternating-week, 2-2-3, and 2-2-5-5 rotations, with age-appropriate recommendations and a complete holiday/vacation planning framework
- The 25% overnight threshold explained — how crossing 92 overnights per year shifts your child support from the sole-custody formula to the shared-custody formula under W.S. § 20-2-304(c), and why every parenting schedule is also a financial decision
- Financial disclosure preparation — exactly which documents you need for the Confidential Financial Affidavit, organized by category, with the child support computation worksheet walked through line by line
- Mediation prep checklist — what to prepare before court-ordered alternative dispute resolution under Rule 16, structured so you can present a clear proposal instead of improvising under pressure
- Courtroom readiness guide — how pro se litigants present evidence, address the judge, and organize their argument around the statutory best-interest factors
- Modification roadmap — the two-part test under W.S. § 20-2-204(c) for changing a custody order when circumstances shift, with the specific filing forms and procedures
Who This Guide Is For
This guide is for parents handling custody in Wyoming's District Courts — whether you're filing for divorce with children, establishing custody as an unmarried parent, or responding to a petition you've been served. It's built for the practical middle ground: parents who want to handle the process themselves but need structure and context that blank court forms don't provide.
It's especially useful if you and your co-parent are working toward an agreement. Court forms demand specific terms — but they don't explain your options, show you what different schedules look like in practice, or flag the child support implications of each choice. This guide does.
If your situation involves domestic violence, substance abuse, or high-conflict contested litigation, the guide explains when and how to engage professional help — including Wyoming's limited-scope representation option, which lets you hire an attorney for a single review or hearing instead of a full retainer.
Why Free Court Packets Aren't Enough
Wyoming's self-help forms are legitimate legal templates. Clerks accept them. Judges sign off on them. But they contain zero guidance on how to design schedules, negotiate terms, or navigate the financial disclosure process.
Several national platforms charge hundreds of dollars for basic form automation — some publishing inaccurate information about Wyoming law in the process (one major online divorce service still claims a shared-custody presumption that the legislature has twice rejected). Co-parenting software subscriptions run $72 to $288 per year but focus on post-decree communication, not the pre-filing process where your most consequential decisions happen.
This guide costs a fraction of any of those alternatives. It gives you the organizational framework, the schedule comparisons, and the Wyoming-specific context you need to complete your official court forms with confidence — and to walk into a mediation session or limited-scope attorney consultation fully prepared.
What You Get
- guide.pdf — the complete process roadmap covering every stage from pre-filing strategy through courtroom readiness
- checklist.pdf — the pre-filing essentials condensed into a printable action list: residency, documents, communication protocols, and key deadlines
- best-interests-self-assessment.pdf — write-in evidence sheet for the eleven W.S. § 20-2-201(a) factors
- parenting-plan-worksheet.pdf — draft well-defined terms before you complete DIVCP 23
- schedule-comparison.pdf — compare rotations against the 92-overnight line
- overnight-counting-worksheet.pdf — count nights to the 25% shared-custody threshold
- holiday-rotation-planner.pdf — even/odd-year holidays with exact transition times
- financial-disclosure-checklist.pdf — Confidential Financial Affidavit and DIVCD 07 packet
- mediation-prep-worksheet.pdf — priorities, agreed terms, and what to bring to ADR
- courtroom-checklist.pdf — print-and-carry hearing checklist
- filing-timeline-tracker.pdf — your actual dates from filing through the decree
- modification-evidence-worksheet.pdf — the two-part test before you open Packet 7
All twelve are delivered as downloadable PDFs you can print and use at every stage of the process.
Your Investment
For less than a single hour of attorney time in any Wyoming county, you get the complete process guide and companion checklist — everything you need to fill out your court forms with clarity, design a parenting schedule your family can live with, and prepare your financial disclosures before the mandatory deadline.
Money-back guarantee. If the guide doesn't help you navigate the custody process with more confidence, email us for a full refund.
Start with the free checklist
Not ready for the full guide? Download the free Parenting Plan Starter Checklist — a one-page overview of Wyoming custody basics and the essential pre-filing steps. If you find it useful, the full guide goes deeper on every topic.