-Rules of Criminal Procedure – Utah Court Rules

Posted: March 13, 2023

Rules of Criminal Procedure – Effective May 3, 2023

URCrP007B. Preliminary Examinations. In its 2023 legislative session, the Utah Legislature approved SJR006, modifying Rule 7B of the Utah Rules of Criminal Procedure. The amendment clarifies the extent to which a magistrate may use hearsay evidence to find probable cause in a preliminary examination.

URCrP016. Discovery. In its 2023 legislative session, the Utah Legislature approved SJR006, modifying Rule 16 of the Utah Rules of Criminal Procedure. The amendment requires prosecutors to disclose all evidence relied upon when filing an information and creates a deadline for such disclosure.

Posted: February 7, 2023

Rules of Criminal Procedure – Effective February 1, 2023

URCrP002. Time. Amend. The Rule is amended to adjust how time is computed following the adoption of Juneteenth as a state holiday.

Supreme Court Order

Posted: October 13, 2022

Rules of Criminal Procedure – Effective October 12, 2022

URCrP016. Discovery. AMEND. Rule 16 is amended to incorporate an updated reference to Rule 26(b)(6) of the Rules of Civil Procedure, which was modified and became effective May 4th, 2022.

Supreme Court Order

Posted: July 20, 2022

Rules of Criminal Procedure – Effective July 19, 2022

URCrP012.5. Notice of transfer Domestic Violence case from Justice Court to District Court. (NEW). On July 1, 2022, H.B. 196 went into effect, modifying Section 78A-7-106 of the Utah Code. The statute now includes a provision whereby a domestic violence case set for trial in a justice court may be transferred to a district court after the prosecuting attorney or defendant files a notice of transfer. Rule 12.5 proposes procedure justice courts and district courts should follow to effectuate this transfer.

Pursuant to U.C.J.A. Rule 11-105, the Utah Supreme Court has approved new Rule 12.5 of the Utah Rules of Criminal Procedure for expedited adoption and a 45-day comment period.

Supreme Court Order

Posted: July 14, 2022

Rules of Criminal Procedure – Effective July 13, 2022

URCrP042. Expungement. (NEW). Pursuant to U.C.J.A. Rule 11-105, the Utah Supreme Court has approved Rule 42 of the Utah Rules of Criminal Procedure for expedited adoption and another round of public comment. This version of the Rule includes technical and substantive corrections to match procedures for automatic expungement provided by Utah Code Ann. 77-40a-201. The Rule further contemplates protocol that the Administrative Office of the Courts will follow to create lists of expungement-eligible cases and identify and remove from those lists cases that do not meet eligibility criteria or are objected to by victims or prosecutors.

Supreme Court Order

Posted: December 8, 2021

Rules of Criminal Procedure – Effective May 1, 2022

URCrP011. Pleas. Amend. The adopted changes to URCrP 11 ensure that both parties of a negotiated plea agreement, approved by the court pursuant to (i)(2), are provided a genuine opportunity to either affirm or withdraw from the agreement if any court generated changes at the time of plea do not conform with the terms the Court had previously approved. Also included are grammatical changes, related to the use of the word “shall,” to comply with the court’s language modernization policy.

Supreme Court Order

Posted: June 24, 2021

Rules of Criminal Procedure – Effective November 1, 2021

URCrP016. Discovery. Amended. The amendments incorporate changes suggested by the public comments to require disclosure of police officer’s notes only if they have not been incorporated into a police report, allowing defendants to waive the mandatory disclosures, and clarifying the notice procedure when a prosecutor decides a required disclosure is either not lawful or would endanger any person or an ongoing investigation.

Supreme Court Order

Posted: January 28, 2021

Rules of Civil Procedure, Rules of Criminal Procedure, Rules of Appellate Procedure, and Rules of Professional Conduct – Effective May 1, 2021

Rules of Civil Procedure

URCP083. AMEND. The proposed amendments would bring represented parties into the rule’s purview. They would also permit any court to rely on another court’s vexatious litigant findings and order their own restrictions. Paragraph (e)(1) was updated to fix a grammatical error.

Rules Governing Constitutional Challenges

The following amendments to Civil Rule 24,Criminal Rule 12, and Appellate Rule 25A are intended to better coordinate the provisions addressing constitutional challenges. The amendments do the following:

Address service on the Attorney General and other governmental entities;
Broaden the kinds of challenges that may arise;
Clarify that it is the governmental entity that responds, not the county or municipal attorney (which can be a contracted position in certain jurisdictions);
Eliminate outdated language in Civil Rule 24 in favor of the updated federal language;
Clarify in each rule the process and timing for the Attorney General or other governmental entity to respond to a constitutional challenge; and
Eliminate the requirement in Appellate Rule 25A that the Attorney General state the reasons for declining to file an amicus brief.

URCP024 – Redline and URCP024 – Clean

URCrP012 – Redline

URAP025A – Redline

Rules of Professional Conduct

RPC05.04. Professional Independence of a Lawyer. AMEND. Adds a clarifying comment to the rule.

Supreme Court Order for Civil Rules 83 and 24

Supreme Court Order for Criminal Rule 12

Supreme Court Order for Appellate Rule 25A

Supreme Court Order for Rules of Professional Conduct Rule 5.4

Posted: February 5, 2019

Rules of Criminal Procedure – Effective May 1, 2019

URCrP007C. Material Witnesses – Procedure for Bond and Warrants. Amended. The amendments to rule 7C brings the rule in line with current practices. The rule clarifies the processes for securing a material witness’s testimony.

Supreme Court Order for URCrP007C

URCrP017. The trial. Amended. Elimination of the Advisory Committee Notes.

Supreme Court Order for URCrP017

Posted: February 5, 2019

Rules of Criminal Procedure – Effective December 19, 2018

URCrP008. Amend. The amendments to rule 8 will make the rule consistent with developments in the law. The amendments will also require trial courts of record to appoint counsel on appeal from the roster maintained by the Board of Appellate Court Judges.

Supreme Court Order