The Supreme Court and Judicial Council have approved amendments to the following Utah court rules. Some of the amendments were first announced in the Spring. Others were more recently approved.
Summary of amendments
Rules of Evidence
URE 0701. Opinion testimony by lay witnesses. Amend. Adds to the required grounds for opinion testimony by a lay witness that the opinion is not based on specialized knowledge within the scope of Rule 702.
URE 0703. Bases of opinion testimony by experts. Amend. Prohibits inadmissible data used to form an expert opinion from being disclosed to the jury unless the probative value substantially outweighs the prejudicial effect.
Rules Governing the Utah State Bar
USB 14-0203. License categories. Amend. Specify that to qualify for the "active, under 3 years" category means to have practiced less than 3 years in any jurisdiction.
USB 14-0507. Roster of lawyers and current record information. Amend.
Require the Bar to collect, maintain and have ready access to a lawyer's e-mail address. Lawyer could still designate the e-mail address as private.
USB 14-0103. Organization and management of the Bar. Amend. Establish on-line election of president-elect and commissioners.
USB 14-0205. Board. Amend. Establish on-line election of president-elect and commissioners.
USB 14-0206. Officers. Amend. Establish on-line election of president-elect and commissioners.
USB 14-0510. Prosecution and appeals. Amend. The proposed amendments provide a right of appeal from an informal disciplinary proceeding, specify the rights of the complainant and respondent at the screening panel proceeding, and detail the exceptions and appeal procedures.
Rules of Civil Procedure
URCP 007. Pleadings allowed; motions, memoranda, hearings, orders, objection to commissioner’s order. Amend. Move process for objecting to a commissioner's recommendation from Rule 7 to Rule 101.
URCP 076. Notice of contact information change. New. Requires attorneys and parties to inform the court of changes to contact information.
URCP 101. Motion practice before court commissioners. Amend. Move process for objecting to a commissioner's recommendation from Rule 7 to Rule 101.
Rules of Appellate Procedure
URAP 19. Extraordinary writs. Amend. The amendment will require a petitioner seeking extraordinary relief to state whether interlocutory appeal was sought, and if so, the results of the petition.
URAP 25. Brief of an amicus curiae or guardian ad litem. Amend. The proposal establishes specific deadlines for filing a brief of an amicus curiae.
URAP 37. Suggestion of mootness; voluntary dismissal. Amend. The amendments clarify that a suggestion of mootness should be filed only when one or more, but less than all, of the issues have become moot. If all the issues are moot, a motion for voluntary dismissal must be filed.
The amendments also establish a pr
URAP 38. Substitution of counsel. Amend. The amendments clarify the process for substituting a party when a party becomes incompetent or for other causes.
URAP 49. Petition for writ of certiorari. Amend. A petition of writ of certiorari shall include references to the record on appeal or to the opinion of the Court Appeals, rather than referring to both sources.
URAP 50. Brief in opposition; reply brief; brief of an amicus curiae.
Amend. The proposal establishes a more detailed process for submitting a proposed amicus brief, including the contents of the brief and deadlines.
Code of Judicial Administration
CJA 02-0104. Recording meetings. Amend. Modify provisions about Judicial Council audio record and minutes to conform to amendments to the Open and Public Meetings Act.
CJA 03-0102. Assumption of judicial office. Amend. Make applicable to judges of courts of record and not of record.
CJA 03-0306. Court interpreters. Repeal and Reenact. Clarifies the standards for appointing a certified, approved or conditionally approved interpreter. Improves the initial training requirements. Adds Guardianship and Conservatorship appointments to cases requiring a certified interpreter. Identifies the d CJA 04-0202.02 Record classification. Amend Classifies business address, phone and email of a non-party as a public record. Residential and personal information of a non-party would remain private.
CJA 04-0409. Council approval of Problem Solving Courts. Amend. Delete reference to repealed section of the Utah Code.
CJA 04-0701. Failure to appear. Amend. Conforming to HB 292, eliminates the requirement for a ciminal information before issuing a warrant for failure to appear in an infraction.
CJA 04-0906. Guardian ad litem program. Amend. Provides that the Guardian ad Litem Oversight Committee appoints the director.
How to view redline text of the approved amendments
To see the text and effective date of the amendments, click on this link to: http://www.utcourts.gov/resources/rules/approved/ and then click on the rule number. All amendments are effective November 1, 2009, unless otherwise indicated. Updated versions of the rules will be posted to the main rules web page (http://www.utcourts.gov/resources/rules/) on or about the effective date of the amendments.