February 2009 – Utah Court Rules – Published for Comment

Posted: February 23, 2009

Audio Records of Hearings; Transcripts

The Judicial Council proposes the following amendments to the Code of Judicial Administration as part of its responsibility under Section 78A-2-405 to govern the manner in which the courts maintain the verbatim record of hearings. The Supreme Court proposes the following amendments to the Rules of Civil and Appellate Procedure governing the preparation of transcripts.
CJA 04-201. Record of proceedings. Amend. Eliminate requirements and standards for recording a court hearing by an official court reporter. Rely exclusively on audio video records.
CJA 03-305. Official court transcribers. Renumber and amend. Eliminate provisions for assignment of transcript preparation. Renumber as 5-202.
CJA 03-304. Official court reporters. Renumber and amend. Eliminate provisions regulating the office of official court reporter. Retain transcript format. Renumber as 5-203.
CJA 03-304.01. Substitute certified shorthand reporters. Repeal. Eliminate provisions for a substitute shorthand reporter.
URAP 11. The record on appeal. Amend. Request preparation of an official transcript through the appellate court clerk rather than the trial court executive.
URAP 12. Transmission of the record. Amend. Shifts responsibilities from the official court reporter to a court transcriber.
URAP 54. Transcript of proceedings. Amend. Request preparation of an official transcript through the appellate court clerk rather than the trial court clerk.
URCP 052. Findings by the court; correction of the record. Amend. Establishes a procedure for correcting the record of a hearing.

Posted: February 23, 2009

Code of Judicial Administration

CJA 03-102. Assumption of judicial office. Amend. Make applicable to judges of courts of record and not of record.
CJA 03-306. Court Interpreters. Repeal and Reenact. Clarifies the standards for appointing a certified, approved or conditionally approved interpreter. Improves the initial training requirements. Adds Guardianship and Conservatorship appointments to cases requiring a certified interpreter. Identifies the discipline process. Simplifies translation of forms. Permits hiring an interpreter as an employee.
CJA 04-801. Filing of small claims cases. Amend. Provide that the district court redirect small claims plaintiffs to justice court.

Posted: February 23, 2009

Rules Governing the Utah State Bar

USB 14-0510. Prosecution and appeals. Amend. The proposed amendments provide a right of appeal from an informal disciplinary proceeding, specify the rights of the complainant and respondent at the screening panel proceeding, and detail the exceptions and appeal procedures.

Posted: February 23, 2009

Rules of Evidence

URE 0701. Opinion testimony by lay witnesses. Amend. Adds to the required grounds for opinion testimony by a lay witness that the opinion is not based on specialized knowledge within the scope of Rule 702.
URE 0703 Bases of opinion testimony by experts. Amend. Prohibits inadmissible data used to form an expert opinion from being disclosed to the jury unless the probative value substantially outweighs the prejudicial effect.

Posted: February 23, 2009

Rules of Civil Procedure

URCP 076. Notice of contact information change. New. Requires attorneys and parties to inform the court of changes to contact information.