Utah Court Rules – Published for Comment
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Posted: October 30, 2013
CJA 04-0603. Mandatory electronic filing. New. Requires that all documents other than the Information be electronically filed in district court criminal cases as of March 31, 2014. Requires Informations to be electronically filed as of January 1, 2015. Effective October 28, 2013 under Rule 2-205. Subject to change after the comment period.
Considering the number of issues that still exist regarding the electronic filing of citations, I’m not sure if setting a strict deadline on the filing of Informations, even if the deadline is down the road a year, is wise. Unless some major changes have already been made or are soon to be made, officers are unable to attach enhancement language (e.g., domestic violence or drug free zone) to citations filed electronically, which then have to be corrected manually by fax or the like with the local clerks.
In addition, CORIS/XChange doesn’t appear to have the capacity to label a specific charge as a DV offense, only the case as a whole. That creates problems when Count 1 is Assault – Domestic Violence, but Count 2 is just Assault. While the PDF version of the Information will have it correctly separated, the advantages of e-filing seem a bit reduced if the charges will not also be entered electronically (and correctly).
Until the citation problems are resolved, it seems unwise to expand the number of cases where the same problems will occur. Rather than setting a deadline for Informations now, it would be more prudent to leave that open until the system is actually ready to receive e-filing of charges properly. Once the system is capable, then you can set a quicker deadline.