This week on Legally Us, Rachael Bennett, a certified family law specialist and senior attorney at Sullivan Law & Associates, breaks down Taylor Frankie Paul’s latest legal battle with her ex Tate Paul.
On June 30, Tate, 32, filed a temporary restraining order in a Utah court, with a hearing requested. He also filed a petition to modify the terms of their divorce and custody agreement pertaining to their two children: daughter Indy, 8, and son Ocean, 6. Tate’s request was ultimately denied one day later.
“The judge denied both of these requests on the basis that there was not any corroborating evidence to support his claims that Taylor was unstable or posed some kind of threat to the children’s safety,” Bennett tells Us. “Most importantly, the judge ruled that there was no proof of ‘immediate and irreparable harm’ to the kids, which is critical to these emergency requests.”
Tate has since filed a motion for reconsideration and submitted several exhibits. Court documents stated that Tate left their two children with Taylor, 32, in June for a trip to Iceland, but new court rulings from a Utah judge addressed Tate’s assertion that “recent events” caused the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) to look into the welfare of his and Taylor’s children.
He submitted text messages and calls as evidence that the Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star recently checked into a rehab center without telling him. (Us reported on July 1 that Taylor voluntarily entered a rehab facility for a short stay and has since left.)
“You can only file a motion for reconsideration if there are new facts or evidence that were missing from the initial filing,” Bennett explains. “Tate’s legal team has provided a bunch of texts between himself and Taylor as his ‘new evidence,’ taking the angle that the court should look past the Iceland trip and the timeline issues because he says the situation dramatically escalated after he returned. With this new argument, he’s really narrowed the scope of relevant evidence to that short, two week window between when he returned from his trip and when he filed for the TRO. So now, unless he can show that Taylor did something in those 2 weeks that put the kids in danger of ‘immediate and irreparable harm,’ this is still a losing argument.”
A court accepted Taylor’s offer to take a sobriety test, specifying that she could resume unsupervised visits with her two older children provided she passes.
In a separate hearing, a judge ruled on Wednesday, July 8, that Taylor can have more unsupervised time with her son Ever, 2, shares with ex Dakota Mortensen.
