Utah Courts – Page 40 – Utah Court Rules

Posted: May 3, 2011

Rules of Civil Procedure

NOTICE FROM UTAH SUPREME COURT ADVISORY COMMITTEE
The Civil Rules Committee has been working on extensive amendments to the rules, and particularly the discovery rules, in an effort to reduce the cost and delay of civil litigation. The draft rules were informally published in June 2010, and members of the committee met with lawyers and judges throughout the state to explain the rules and seek comments and suggestions. The informal comment period ended in December 2010.
Since then, the committee has reviewed and discussed all comments, and the draft rules were revised in response to some of them. The most significant changes were to specify “tiers” of standard discovery based on the amount at issue in the litigation and to provide parties with the choice of receiving a report from an opposing expert, or taking a 4-hour deposition of the opposing expert.
The draft rules are now being officially published, and comments will be accepted during the 45-day comment period. The committee will consider all comments received, make further changes to the rules if warranted, and then send its recommendations to the Supreme Court.
The comment deadline is June 21.
URCP 001. General provisions. w/o redline w/redline
URCP 008. General rules of pleadings. w/o redline w/redline
URCP 009. Pleading special matters. w/o redline w/redline
URCP 016. Pretrial conferences. w/o redline w/redline
URCP 026. General provisions governing disclosure and discovery. w/o redline w/redline
URCP 026A. Disclosure in domestic relations actions. w/o redline w/redline
URCP 029. Stipulations regarding disclosure and discovery procedure. w/o redline w/redline
URCP 030. Depositions. w/o redline w/redline
URCP 031. Depositions upon written questions. w/o redline w/redline
URCP 033. Interrogatories to parties. w/o redline w/redline
URCP 034. Production of documents and things and entry upon land for inspection and other purposes. w/o redline w/redline
URCP 035. Physical and mental examination of persons. w/o redline w/redline
URCP 036. Request for admission. w/o redline w/redline
URCP 037. Failure to make or cooperate in disclosure or discovery; sanctions. w/o redline w/redline

Posted: March 24, 2011

Rules Governing the Utah State Bar

Petition to amend Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection rules AKA Client Security Fund rules.
USB 14-0901. Definitions. Amend. Technical change.
USB 14-0903. Committee membership and terms; Board approval of Committee recommendations. Amend. Technical change.
USB 14-0904. Funding. Amend. Modifies the Fund’s minimum balance provisions and assessment provisions. Provides for suspension of a lawyer’s license in some circumstances until the lawyer reimburses the Fund.
USB 14-0910. Eligible claim. Amend. Establishes new time limits in which to make a claim.
USB 14-0912. Processing claims. Amend. Technical change.
USB 14-0913. Payment of reimbursement. Amend. Establishes a lifetime cap per lawyer. Permits claims to be paid on a pro rata basis if it appears the claims will exceed a lawyer’s annual or lifetime cap.

Posted: March 24, 2011

Code of Judicial Administration

CJA 03-0109. Ethics Advisory Committee. Amend. Authorizes the committee to interpret statutes, rules, and case law to answer a request for an opinion. Eliminates the committee’s education obligations. Technical changes.

Posted: March 2, 2011

Rules of Civil Procedure

URCP 064D Writ of garnishment. Amend. Requires the creditor to meet and confer with the garnishee before attempting to impose liability on the garnishee.
URCP 101. Motion practice before court commissioners. Amend. Deletes a paragraph that is incorporated into new Rule 108.
URCP 108. Objection to court commissioner’s recommendation. New. Establishes a procedure for objecting to a court commissioner’s recommendations. Establishes standards of review.

Posted: March 2, 2011

Rules of Criminal Procedure

URCrP 013. Pretrial conference. Amend. The change makes a defendant’s waiver of the right to appear at a pretrial conference subject to court approval. Occasionally judges want defendants at pretrial conferences because of the substantive issues that are discussed.

Posted: March 2, 2011

Rules of Appellate Procedure

URAP 024. Briefs. Amend. The proposed change creates a word limit for briefs rather than a page limit. A principal brief may have up to 14,000 words. Word limits are established for all other types of briefs.
URAP 027. Form of briefs. Amend. The proposed change will make 14 point typeface the standard rather than 13 point type.
URAP 038B. Qualifications and duties for appointed counsel. Amend. This amendment describes the scope of representation for appointed counsel. The rule clarifies that representation is required through a petition for writ of certiorari to the Utah Supreme Court, if such a petition is warranted, or if it is necessary to respond to a State petition.

Posted: March 2, 2011

Code of Judicial Administration

CJA 01-0205. Standing and ad hoc committees. Amend. Modifies the membership on the Judicial Outreach Committee.
CJA 03-0114. Judicial outreach. Amend. Modifies the scope of the committee’s responsibilities.
CJA 04-0202.02. Records classification. Amend. Classifies as private financial declaration in domestic relations cases and their supporting attachments and child protective order cases. Classifies as a protected record audit records concerning the security of a court facility.
CJA 04-0403. Signature stamp use. Amend. Permits a clerk to use a judge’s signature stamp for orders dismissing cases under URCP 3 and URCP 4(b), in addition to the existing authority to do so for dismissals under Rule 4-103.
CJA 04-0613. Jail prisoner transportation. Amend. Amends the rule to conform to a new agreement between the courts and counties.
CJA 06-0401. Domestic relations commissioners. Amend. Makes amendments to conform to proposed Rule of Civil Procedure 108.
CJA 06-0601 Mental health commissioners. Amend. Makes amendments to conform to proposed Rule of Civil Procedure 108.

Posted: January 19, 2011

Rules of Criminal Procedure

URCrP 015A. Scientific, Lab, and Analytical Reports – When prosecution required to produce foundation and chain of custody witnesses. Repeal. The rule was enacted in 2010 to create a streamlined process to address the confrontation issues established by Melendez-Diaz. The rule has had the opposite effect, creating additional and unnecessary work for both prosecutors and defense attorneys.

Posted: January 19, 2011

Rules of Juvenile Procedure

URJP 029A. Visual recording of statement or testimony of child victim or witness of sexual or physical abuse – Conditions of admissibility. Amend. Modifies the conditions for using as evidence a recorded oral statement of a minor under 14.

Posted: November 23, 2010

Rules of Appellate Procedure

URAP 011. The record on appeal. Amend, Amends rule to reflect on-line transcript ordering.
URAP 012. Transmission of the record. Amend. Amends rule to reflect that the transcriber submits an electronic copy of the transcript to the transcript management program and hard copy is filed with the trial court.
URAP 042. Transfer of case from supreme court to court of appeals. Amend. The amendment eliminates the paragraph addressing finality of transfer orders. The Supreme Court’s practice will be handled internally and not by rule.