March 2011 – Utah Court Rules – Published for Comment

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.