Utah Court Rules – Published for Comment – Page 14 – The Supreme Court and Judicial Council invite comments about amending these rules. To view the proposed amendment, click on the rule number. To submit a comment or view the comments of others, click on “Continue Reading.” To submit a comment, scroll down to the “Leave a Reply” section, and type your comment in the “Comment” field. Type your name and email address in the designated fields and click “Post Comment.” Comments cannot be acknowledged, but all will be considered. Comments are saved to a buffer for review before publication.

Posted: November 8, 2021

Rules of Professional Conduct – Comment Period Closed December 23, 2021

RPC05.05. Unauthorized Practice of Law; Multijurisdictional Practice of Law. Amend. Clarifies that a non-Utah lawyer who is living in Utah may provide legal services remotely to clients in a jurisdiction where the lawyer is admitted. The lawyer must not establish a public-facing office nor hold out to the public or otherwise represent that the lawyer is admitted to practice law in this jurisdiction.

RPC01.00. Terminology. Amend. Defines a public-facing office as an office that is open to the public and provides a service that is available to the population in that location.

Posted: October 21, 2021

Supreme Court Rules of Professional Practice – Comment Period Closed December 5, 2021

CJA11-0510. Ethics and Discipline Committee composition. Amend. The proposed changes would allow the Ethics and Discipline Committee to recruit up to eight public members and up to 25 lawyer members, with the minimum required numbers of members remaining at four and 21, respectively. The purpose of the amendment is to ensure that the Committee has a sufficient number of individual members to attend screening panel hearings of disciplinary matters. The proposed changes also allow the Committee to have three to four Committee vice chairs, rather than always requiring four vice chairs.

CJA11-0511. Screening panel composition; responsibilities. Amend. The first proposed change reflects the allowed increase in the overall size of the Ethics and Discipline Committee’s four screening panels but retains the requirement that a maximum of one public member and four lawyer members will attend screening panel hearings. The second proposed change provides that screening panel hearings must have five screening panel members, including the panel chair or vice chair and one public member. Consent by the parties to a lower number of screening panel members is no longer allowed. The final proposed change allows the screening panel chair to vote on panel determinations.

CJA11-0513. Committee clerk. Amend. The proposed change applies the immunity provisions of Rule 11-540 to the Committee clerk. The immunity provisions previously were not expressly applicable to the clerk.

CJA11-0591. Reinstatement following a suspension of more than six months; relicensure. Correction. The proposed change clarifies that, unlike a petition for relicensure, a petition for reinstatement need not be accompanied by a report and recommendation from the Bar’s Character and Fitness Committee.

Posted: October 20, 2021

Rules of Civil Procedure – Comment Period Closed December 4, 2021

URCP005. Service and filing of pleadings and other papers. AMEND. The proposed amendments would make email service the default method of service and eliminate the certificate of service requirement when a paper is served by filing it with the court’s electronic-filing.

URCP076. Notice of contact information change. AMEND. The proposed amendments to Rule 76 would coordinate with the Rule 5 amendments by clarifying the purposes for which updated contact information is provided to the court.

Posted: October 19, 2021

Rules of Criminal Procedure – Comment Period Closed December 3, 2021

URCrP011. Pleas. Amend. The proposed change would provide that both parties must either affirm or have the opportunity to withdraw from a plea agreement if the judge decides that the final disposition will not conform to the plea agreement to which the Court had previously approved. Also included are grammatical changes that make the rule comply with the court’s style guide.

Posted: October 19, 2021

Rules of Juvenile Procedure – Comment Period Closed December 3, 2021

URJP027A. Admissibility of statements given by minors. Amended. Reflects statutory changes made by H.B. 178 Juvenile Interrogation Amendments (2021) and H.B. 285 Juvenile Code Recodification (2021).

URJP037. Child protective orders. Amended. Revises rule to comply with S.B. 32 Indigent Defense Act Amendments (2019). Clarifies that child protective order proceedings are governed by Title 78B, Chapter 7, Part 1 General Provisions, and Part 2 Child Protective Orders. Changes the time frame for holding a hearing after granting an ex party child protective order to align with statutory changes in H.B. 255 Protective Order Revisions (2021).

URJP045. Pre–Disposition Reports and Social Studies. Amended. Updates rule to reflect current terminology regarding dispositional reports in delinquency and abuse, neglect, and dependency cases and statutory changes contained in H.B. 285 Juvenile Code Recodification (2021). Clarifies that a juvenile judge shall not shall not view or consider a dispositional report in delinquency cases prior to adjudication since the dispositional report is typically uploaded to juvenile court’s record management system prior to the disposition hearing. Updates the timeframe for providing a dispositional report in delinquency cases to allow attorneys sufficient time to review the report with their minor client.

URJP055. Transfer of minors who present a danger in detention. Repealed. Rule 55 will be repealed because procedures governing minors in detention are contained in Title 80, Chapter 6, Juvenile Justice.

Posted: September 28, 2021

Code of Judicial Administration – Comment Period Closed November 12, 2021

CJA02-0101. Rules for the conduct of Council meetings. (AMEND)

CJA05-0101. The Board of Appellate Court Judges. (AMEND)

CJA06-0101. The Board of District Court Judges. (AMEND)

CJA07-0101. Juvenile Court Board, Executive Committee and Council Representatives. (AMEND)

CJA09-0101. Board of Justice Court Judges. (AMEND)

The proposed amendments remove the requirement to follow Robert’s Rules. Use of Robert’s Rules isn’t required under the Open and Public Meetings Act.

CJA03-0303. Justice court clerks. (AMEND)

In conjunction with the Judicial Institute, the Board of Justice Court Judges recommends adding an annual certification requirement for justice court clerks.

CJA03-0117. Committee on Court Forms. (AMEND)

CJA03-0401. Office of General Counsel. (AMEND)

The proposed amendments make the rules consistent with CJA 1-205(3)(D) and CJA 1-204(8), providing the State Court Administrator with the flexibility to assign AOC resources where appropriate.

CJA03-0411. Grant Management. (AMEND)

The proposed amendments outlines significant changes to the courts’ grant management program.

CJA04-0202.02. Records classification. (AMEND)

A working group is preparing a new form on petitions to determine competency. The form will have two parts (1) the petition without confidential information and (2) a statement in support that includes confidential information. The proposed amendment in line 189 would ensure the statements in support are classified as private.

*The proposed amendment in line 169 went out for public comment in July. It is included here for tracking purposes only.

https://legacy.utcourts.gov/utc/rules-comment/2021/06/02/code-of-judicial-administration-comment-period-closes-july-17-2021-2/

CJA04-0208. Automatic expungement of cases. (NEW)

New rule 4-208 governs the Administrative Office of the Court’s development and implementation of an automated expungement process. The rule requires approval by the Judicial Council of all automated processes and approval of the form and content of automated orders. Processes must also meet any requirements under the Rules of Criminal Procedure.

Posted: September 27, 2021

Rules Governing the Utah State Bar – Comment Period Closed November 11, 2021

USB14-0209. Utah Bar Foundation. Proposal to repeal.

Background

The Utah Bar Foundation (UBF) was created in 1963 as a 501(c)(3) organization. Its original purpose was to raise funds from members of the legal community in order to support civil legal aid for lower income Utahns, to fund law-related education, to further the administration of justice, and to support other worthwhile law-related causes.

Section 2.1 of UBF’s 1963 founding Bylaws states the following: “Section 2.1 Classification, Qualification, Privileges and Election of Members. The corporation shall have one class of members consisting of all duly qualified, active members of the Utah State Bar who are in good standing. Each member shall have one (1) vote at any meeting of the members.” At some point many years ago, language in substantially the same form was codified in Rule 14-209.

UBF stopped raising private funds from the legal community in 1999 when nonprofit “and Justice for all” was created. “and Justice for all” now serves as the primary fundraising organization in the legal community.

Because UBF has evolved to receive financial support from a wide variety of sources and not solely from private legal community funds, the UBF Board is proposing to amend its Bylaws so that it no longer has defined membership. This would allow active, inactive, and non-attorneys to serve on the Utah Bar Foundation Board of Directors, as well as members of the general public. It will also render moot the language of Rule 14-209.

The vote to amend the Bylaws will take place at a meeting of the currently defined membership which is defined as “all duly qualified, active members of the Utah State Bar who are in good standing.” Notice for that meeting will be provided in the Utah Bar Journal and given via email to all qualified UBF members as their email address appears on the records of the Utah State Bar. Additional details on the date, time, and location of the meeting, as well as a full copy of the proposed Restated Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws for the Utah Bar Foundation, can be found on the Foundation’s website at https://www.utahbarfoundation.org.

Please contact the Foundation offices for any questions or additional information at 801-297-7046 or via email at kim@utahbarfoundation.org.

While the Foundation will continue to provide regular updates to Utah attorneys about their activities, this amendment to the Bylaws will allow the Foundation to be more inclusive of all stakeholders that share its common vision and mission of supporting civil legal aid and law-related education efforts.

Posted: September 27, 2021

Rules of Juvenile Procedure – Comment Period Closed November 11, 2021

URJP011. Time limits on detention orders. Amend. Updates statutory references affected by H.B. 285 Juvenile Code Recodification (2021) and adds language to address when diversion in lieu of detention agreements can terminate due to either non-judicial adjustment being entered into or a petition being filed.

Posted: August 23, 2021

Rules of Juvenile Procedure – Comment Period Closed October 7, 2021

URJP044. Findings and Conclusions. Amend. Clarifies which case proceedings the court shall enter findings of fact and conclusions of law as well as updates the outdated term “permanent deprivation” to “termination of parental rights.” Updates statutory references affected by H.B. 285 Juvenile Code Recodification (2021).

Posted: August 23, 2021

Rules of Professional Practice – Comment Period Closed October 7, 2021

CJA11-0401. Standing Committee on Appellate Representation and the Appellate Roster. Amend.

The following is a brief summary of the rule amendments (line numbers refer to the redline version and note where the subject amendments begin). Amendments to Rule 11-401:

· Address the creation of the Indigent Appellate Defense Division (line 12);

· Simplify committee composition (line 33);

· Clarify that at least one appellate brief submitted for application purposes must be in the relevant subject matter area (line 107);

· Add a CLE requirement (line 146);

· Add requirements for entity exempt status and clarify when an attorney falls under that exemption (line 161); and

· Increase term limits from three to five years (lines 135 and 145).