April 2025 – Utah Court Rules – Published for Comment

Posted: April 28, 2025

Code of Judicial Administration – Comment Period Closed June 12, 2025

CJA03-117. Committee on Court Forms (AMEND)
The proposed amendments: 1) formalize the authority of the Forms Committee; 2) clarify that the Judicial Council must approve forms used by Licensed Paralegal Practitioners; 3) grant the Forms Committee the authority to approve all other forms; 4) allow the Forms Committee to delegate its responsibility for certain groups of forms; and 5) direct the Forms Committee to draft forms that center on the needs of self-represented litigants and enhance access to justice.

CJA03-403. Judicial branch education (AMEND)
The proposed amendments make the rule applicable to all state employees who are not time-limited and modify program requirements to align with the judiciary’s performance year, allowing supervisors to include education requirements in performance expectations and evaluations.

Posted: April 22, 2025

Rules of Appellate Procedure – Comment Period Closed June 6, 2025

URAP042. Transfer of case from Supreme Court to Court of Appeals. Amend. The amendments to Rule 42 that were previously sent out for public comment and have been approved include: 1) add to the rule the Court’s currently internal process for retention of appeals in the Supreme Court; and 2) clean-up language for clarity and consistency. One additional amendment was made to remove “to final decision and disposition” in paragraph (g) Subsequent proceedings before Court of Appeals. This additional amendment is being sent out for public comment and approved as final effective May 1, 2025.

Posted: April 22, 2025

Rules of Juvenile Procedure – Comment Period Closed June 6, 2025

URJP016. Transfer of delinquency case. Amend. The proposed amendments to Rule 16 include: (1) in paragraph (a), the preliminary inquiry by the probation officer will occur in the county of residence, but if the minor or the minor’s parent, guardian, or custodian cannot be located or fails to appear for a preliminary inquiry or the minor declines the offer for a nonjudicial adjustment, the referral will be transferred back to the county of occurrence; (2) paragraph (b) establishes the minor’s county of residence as the venue for arraignment and pretrial proceedings; (3) in paragraph (c), trial proceedings will be held in the county of occurrence; (4) paragraph (c) also provides further direction regarding different types of motions; (5) changes to paragraph (d) reflect current C.A.R.E. uploading and eFiling practices; and (6) grammatical and stylistic changes were made to align with the Supreme Court’s Style Guide.

Posted: April 18, 2025

Rules of Juvenile Procedure – Comment Period Closed June 2, 2025

URJP016A. Transfer of a non-delinquency proceeding. Amend. The proposed amendments to Rule 16A include: (1) moving the procedure regarding scheduling in paragraph (d) down to paragraph (e); (2) moving the procedure regarding the notice of the transfer in paragraph (e) up to paragraph (d); and (3) removing procedures in paragraph (e) regarding the “transmit[ting]” of documents. The changes reflect a logical transfer sequence and an updated transfer process given current C.A.R.E. uploading and eFiling practices.

URJP037A. Visual recording of statement or testimony of child in abuse, neglect, dependency, or substantiation proceedings – Conditions of admissibility. Amend. The proposed changes to Rule 37A add child protective order proceedings and other related non-delinquency proceedings to the title and to paragraphs (a), (b), and (c). These changes intend to clarify that Rule 37A applies to child protective order proceedings and other related non-delinquency matters. There are also several grammatical changes throughout and changes that conform to the Supreme Court’s Style Guide.

URJP044. Findings and conclusions. Amend. The proposed amendment to Rule 44 strikes the procedure in paragraph (c) that directs a court to “dismiss any petition which has not been proven,” and replaces it with the following two procedures: (1) in regards to a non-delinquency case, a court will dismiss a petition that has not been proven; and (2) in a delinquency case, the court will enter a finding and disposition of Not True when an allegation of delinquency has not been proven. To accommodate the two proposed procedures, current paragraphs (d), (e), and (f) were renumbered. There are also several grammatical changes throughout and changes that conform to the Supreme Court’s Style Guide.