Utah Court Rules – Published for Comment
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Posted: June 21, 2013
URAP 024. Briefs. Amend. Requires that an addendum to a brief in a termination of parental rights case be separately bound. Establishes requirements and guidelines for protecting the confidentiality of persons involved in the appeal of an adoption or termination of parental rights.
URAP 058. Ruling. Amend. Refers to the applicability of Rule 24 in appeals involving the termination of parental rights.
This comment is regarding the amendments to URAP 024 which establish requirements and guidelines for protecting the confidentiality of persons involved in the appeal of an adoption or termination of parental rights. The other confidential orders from juvenile court need to be included as well. Specifically, the confidentiality of persons involved in appeals from abuse, neglect, dependency, protective orders, and substantiation proceedings also need to be protected. The records (documents) from these proceedings are not public in juvenile court statutes, and numerous other statutes protect the confidentiality of records regarding abused/neglected children and adults accused of abuse and neglect.
For both URAP 024 and URAP 058, the references should not be limited to termination of parental rights and adoption cases. I posted a detailed comment about this in response to the same rule for a 7/11/13 deadline — not sure why URAP 024 has appeared again, but please see my previous detailed comment. Termination of parental rights and adoption orders are not the only confidential orders that are appealed. Abuse, neglect, dependency, protective orders, and substantiation proceedings are similarly confidential and are appealed as well.