Judge Shoots Down Tate Paul's Bid to Restrain Taylor Frankie Paul

When a judge denies your emergency court filing in less than 24 hours, it’s typically a sign your legal strategy needs work. That’s exactly what happened to Tate Paul when he filed a temporary restraining order against his ex-wife Taylor Frankie Paul in Utah on June 30, only to have both that request and his petition to modify their custody agreement shot down the very next day.

The issue? According to Rachael Bennett, a certified family law specialist and senior attorney at Sullivan Law&Associates, the judge found zero corroborating evidence that Taylor posed any threat to their two children—8-year-old Indy and 6-year-old Ocean. More critically, there was no proof of the“immediate and irreparable harm”that’s absolutely essential to winning an emergency restraining order. You can’t just show up to court with concerns; you need to demonstrate that something bad is about to happen right now.

But Tate didn’t accept the loss quietly. He filed a motion for reconsideration and submitted new exhibits, pivoting his argument around a narrow two-week window between when he returned from an Iceland trip in June and when he initially filed the restraining order. He presented text messages as evidence that the Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star had checked into a rehab facility without informing him. The strategy here was clever—by narrowing the timeline, he could sidestep questions about the Iceland trip itself and focus only on what he claims happened after he got back.

There’s just one problem: even with these new arguments, Bennett explains that Tate still faces an uphill battle.“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.”The court has already accepted Taylor’s offer to take a sobriety test, which she can pass to resume unsupervised visits with her two older children. Additionally, a judge ruled on Wednesday, July 8, that Taylor can have more unsupervised time with her son Ever, 2, whom she shares with ex Dakota Mortensen.

What this case illustrates is that family courts require concrete proof, not just parental worry. Emergency measures exist to protect children from genuine, imminent danger—not to give one parent leverage over another during a custody dispute. Tate’s legal team may have new documents, but without evidence that Taylor’s recent rehab stay created an unsafe environment for the kids, the court isn’t buying it. Sometimes the smartest legal move is recognizing when you’ve lost and stepping back.