Utah Court Rules – Published for Comment
The Supreme Court and Judicial Council invite comments about amending these rules. To view the proposed amendment, click on the rule number.
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Posted: November 18, 2021
URJP008. Rights of minors while in detention. Repealed. Rule 8 will be repealed because it is superseded by Utah Code sections 80-6-205 and 80-6-206 that address the rights of minors while in detention.
Posted: November 8, 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
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
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
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
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
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
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.