Category: -Code of Judicial Administration

CJA04-0409. Council Approval of Problem Solving Courts.  AMEND – Removes certification criteria from Rule 4-409 and adds those items to the Judicial Council’s problem solving court certification checklist.  Clarifies and provided greater detail regarding the Judicial Council’s problem solving court certification process.  Makes miscellaneous stylistic changes and minor non-substantive revisions.

Adult Drug Court Certification Checklist. AMEND – Adds certification criteria previously located in Rule 4-409.  Reformats and reorganizes existing content for greater clarity and ease of use.  Make minor non-substantive revisions and corrections.  While publication of the certification checklist is not required under CJA 2-203, the Judicial Council is seeking public comment on the certification checklist due to its interdependence with CJA 4-409.  Although the specific version of the checklist published for public comment relates to “Adult Drug Courts,” feedback will be considered more broadly as applying to all types of Utah problem solving courts.  The Judicial Council specifically seeks feedback on the continuing need for the “in rural areas” exception language marked with an asterisk in “Required Criteria” number 13 and 14.

CJA09-0109 Presiding judges. New. Establishes the procedure for election, term of office, role, responsibilities, and authority of presiding judges, associate presiding judges, and education directors for justice courts. This rule is effective April 1, 2018 pursuant to UCJA Rule 2-205 and this is the second request for comment.

CJA11-104 Amend. The proposed amendment clarifies the process for submitting a proposed rule change for publication.

CJA03-0111  Performance evaluation of senior judges and court commissioners.  Amend.  1) Clarifies when court commissioners’ annual evaluations will be completed, by whom, and what the evaluation process will entail; 2) establishes when the presiding judge will prepare a performance plan versus a corrective action plan for a court commissioner; 3) moves the Judicial Council’s certification process from August to July; and 4) replaces the active senior judge performance evaluation process in paragraph (1) with a new process in paragraph (3)(B). Amended (3)(B) provides that the surveys the Judicial Council collects from the trial court executives, the Court of Appeals Clerk of Court, the Justice Court Administrator, and the presiding judges on an active senior judge’s performance will be informed by anonymous questionnaires completed each time the senior judge completes an assignment. In the trial courts, court staff and jurors will complete the questionnaires, and in the Court of Appeals, the other judges on the panel to which the senior judge is assigned and the law clerks with whom the senior judge works will complete the questionnaires. This is the second request for comment due to the addition of the fourth category of amendments.  

CJA11-101  Amend.  The first proposed amendment will allow for emeritus members of the Supreme Court’s rules advisory committees.  The second amendment will allow a member to serve up to four terms if any of those terms are as chair.

CJA011-0401   New Rule 11-401:  To establish a standing committee to assist the Board of Appellate Court Judges to determine a roster of attorneys eligible for appointment to represent indigent parties on appeal to the Utah Supreme Court and the Utah Court of Appeals.