Author: Utah Courts

Posted: April 24, 2023

Code of Judicial Administration – Comment Period Closed June 8, 2023

CJA04-0202.02. Records classification (AMEND). The proposed amendments update statutory references and include three substantive changes:

  1. Classifies records related to Court Commissioner Conduct Committee and Council actions under CJA Rule 3-201.02 as “private,” except for public censures by the Judicial Council.
  2. Safeguards contact information in domestic cases upon request, if the individual’s contact information has been safeguarded in a protective order or stalking injunction action under (8)(A) or in the cases listed under (8)(B).
  3. In response to S.B. 93, classifies:
    • sex designation records for both minors and adults as “private;”
    • name change records for both minors and adults as “public,” and
    • records in cases involving both a name change and a sex designation change, for minors and adults, as “private” (with a few exceptions).

 

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Posted: April 21, 2023

Rules of Evidence – Comment Period Closed June 5, 2023

URE0506. Physician and Mental Health Therapist-Patient. Amend. The proposed amendments to Rule 506 seeks to find a proper balance between maintaining a strong privilege, respecting a criminal defendant’s constitutional rights, and clarifying when and how the exception applies.

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Posted: April 20, 2023

Rules of Appellate Procedure – Comment Period Closed June 4, 2023

URAP014. Review of administrative orders: how obtained; intervention. Public Comment. The Committee proposes amending Rule 14 to: (1) add a filing fee provision. This provision was inadvertently removed from the rule in 2016. The Committee is adding the provision back into the rule so it is consistent with Rules 3 and 5.

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Posted: April 20, 2023

Rules of Appellate Procedure – Comment Period Closed June 4, 2023

URAP004. Appeal as of right: when taken. S.B. 18, the Public Expression Protection Act, originally sought to impose a 21-day deadline to file a notice of appeal from the denial of an expedited motion to dismiss a lawsuit under the Act. But the Utah Supreme Court’s legislative liaison recognized that including a deadline to file a notice of appeal in a statute could raise constitutional questions about whether that deadline infringes the Court’s procedural rulemaking authority. There was not enough time left in the legislative session for the legislature to pursue a joint resolution to amend the rules of appellate procedure to add the new deadline. Thus, to avoid future litigation on the constitutional issue, court and legislative personnel worked jointly to amend rule 4 to include the new deadline to take effect simultaneously with the bill’s effective date of May 3, 2023.  The Court has accordingly adopted the amendment to rule 4 on an expedited basis, with the public comment period to follow, pursuant to rule 11-105(5) of the Utah Rules of Judicial Administration.

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Posted: April 11, 2023

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Posted: March 20, 2023

Code of Judicial Administration – Comment Period Closed May 4, 2023

CJA01-0205. Standing and ad hoc committees (AMEND). Adds members to the Judicial Council’s Standing Committee on Fairness and Accountability.

CJA03-0117. Committee on Court Forms (AMEND). Acknowledges the Committee’s responsibility to review existing forms and assess the need for new court forms, adds new form requirements, including user-testing where practicable, and removes the  requirement that the General Counsel conduct a legal review of every form prior to committee approval.

CJA03-0406. Budget and fiscal management (AMEND). Incorporates the role of the Budget and Fiscal Management Committee and makes other improvements to clarify the judiciary’s budget process.

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Posted: February 28, 2023

Code of Judicial Administration – Comment Period Closed April 14, 2023

CJA06-0507.  Court visitors (AMEND). The proposed amendments replace “protected person” and “ward” with “respondent” where applicable; clarify who may receive a court visitor report or notice; require court visitors to use a Council-approved Order on Review form; and provide the court with broad discretion in taking action on a court visitor report. Language access requirements are addressed elsewhere in the Code of Judicial Administration.

CJA03-0414. Court security (AMEND). The proposed amendments require officers in plain clothes to wear something that identifies them as law enforcement; require officers to use a duty-type holster with a user-operated restraining device if a firearm is visible; clarify who is allowed to carry firearms in courthouses; and otherwise clean up or streamline the rule.

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Posted: February 23, 2023

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Posted: February 17, 2023

Rules of Civil Procedure – Comment Period Closed April 3, 2023

URCP010. Form of pleadings and other papers. Amend. The Committee proposes to amend subparagraph (d) of this rule to modify the top margin from 1½ inches to 1 inch, like the right, left, and bottom margins. The reason for the wider margin at the top was to allow filing of paper copies in a folder with top hole punches. With electronic filing, this extra space at the top is no longer needed.

URCP100A. Case Management of Domestic Relations Actions. Amend. The Committee proposes to amend subparagraph (a) to exempt actions initiated by the Office of Recovery Services from this Rule. ORS reports that because its actions usually require service on more than one party, it often happens that one of them will be served and file an answer, prompting a case management conference to be set. The setting will often be premature because the other party has not yet been served or has not yet responded. In other cases a case management conference is unnecessary because the responding parties agree with ORS’s pleading.

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Posted: February 7, 2023

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