Full custody and 50/50 custody in Wyoming: what are the real chances?

The law in plain words

Wyoming changed its law in 2025. For cases filed on or after 1 July 2025, the court starts from shared custody — joint decisions and roughly equal time. Under Senate File 117. This amended section 20-2-201, unless an exception applies.

The 2025 shared-custody presumption

For cases filed on or after 1 July 2025, Wyoming law starts from shared custody. Both parents share the big decisions and have roughly equal time.

This is a big change. In older cases the court had more open-ended room. So check which rule applies to you.

When shared custody does not apply

The court can set the presumption aside if the parents agree in writing to something else, if a parent has been found guilty of domestic violence or child abuse, if the parents live more than 300 miles apart, or if clear and convincing evidence shows a different arrangement is best.

Moving off shared custody takes one of those exact reasons.

Existing orders do not change on their own

If your order predates the new law, it does not automatically change. But the new rule may matter if you later ask to change it.

So the date your case was filed really matters here. A lawyer can tell you which rule applies.

What the numbers do not show

The figures above show where Wyoming children live, not what a court ordered. Use them as background only.

Your evidence and the child's needs decide the case.

Building the record

Note the care you give and your time with the child, each with a date and the proof. If you seek to move off shared custody, record the exact reason with its evidence.

Casewell keeps those notes and files together. So a lawyer can read a clear timeline.

No age at which a child chooses

Wyoming sets no age at which a child picks a home. Section 20-2-201 lists what the court weighs, including the quality of the child's relationship with each parent and how the parents and child interact. A child's view sits inside that, without a fixed age attached.

What a judge watches for is whether the view is the child's own. A preference that appears after one parent has been talking usually carries less, not more.

Children are rarely asked to give evidence in open court. A Wyoming judge is more likely to speak with a child in chambers, away from both parents.

The first few weeks set the pattern

Whatever routine runs while a case is pending often becomes the shape of the final order. Judges are careful about disturbing an arrangement a child has settled into.

So keep your parenting time going, in full and on time. If you are leaving the family home, work out where the children will be first, and get that written down.

Temporary orders exist for this. They fix the schedule while the case runs, and they are far easier to build on than to undo later.

Before you file in Wyoming

Save any existing order, track your time with the child for a few weeks, and write down the arrangement you want.

A Wyoming family-law lawyer can confirm whether the 2025 shared-custody rule applies and weigh your plan against section 20-2-201.

Prepare before professional costs rise

Casewell organizes parenting time, messages, handovers, expenses and files into a dated timeline. Export the relevant period for review so a lawyer can focus on the real custody questions and any supported pattern of abuse or non-working together. Start your Casewell record today.