The Eagle4Justice provides this News Flash to help get the information to those who need it most!

Summary: More than 11,000 Utah children are impacted by divorce each year, including 2,500 children in Salt Lake County. To address the needs of these children, the Utah State Courts offers a Divorce Education for Children class twice each month at no charge to participants.

Who Can Benefit: The Divorce Education for Children class is for children ages 9 to 12, whose parents have filed for divorce or whose parents are divorced.

When & Where: Classes for September are scheduled for Saturday, September 13^th from 10 a.m. to Noon and for Monday, September 22^nd from 6 to 8 p.m. Both classes will be held at the Scott M. Matheson Courthouse, 450 South State Street, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Other & More Information: There is no charge to attend the classes. Advance registration is required. To register or for more information, please contact Allysa White at 801-578-3897 or via email. For a brochure click here.

Source: For a direct feed of News Releases from the Utah Courts click here.

PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that Rule 33 of Utah’s Rules of Criminal Procedure has been amended.

Summary: Regulation of conduct in the courtroom. Amend. The amendments will permit a judge to sanction an attorney or party for incivility in pleadings or courtroom conduct.

Amendment: Follow this link URCrP 33 to review the entire amendment.

Order: Click this link for the Supreme Court Order approving the amendment.

Effective Date: The amendment becomes effective on November 1, 2008.

Source: For a direct Blog feed from the Utah Courts click here.

PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that Rule 15.5 of Utah’s Rules of Criminal Procedure has been amended.

Summary: Out of court statement and testimony of child victims or child witnesses of sexual or physical abuse - Conditions of admissibility. Amend. The amendments are intended to help bring the rule into compliance with the requirements of Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, 124 S. Ct. 1354, 158 L. Ed. 2d 177 (2004).

Amendment:  Follow this link URCrP 15.5 to review the entire amendment.

Order:  Click this link for the Supreme Court Order approving the amendment.

Effective Date:  The amendment becomes effective on November 1, 2008.

Source:  For a direct Blog feed from the Utah Courts click here. 

Good Morning from West Jordan, Utah.

Yesterday I described the DMV Hearing Request program of the Utah Justice Foundation. It was the first of three online service programs that I will describe here at the UtahJusticeFoundationBLOG. 

Today, I will take a few minutes to talk about the Court Docket Request service program available to criminal defendants in Utah. But first, let’s go over why the Utah Justice Foundation offers this service.

We have a mission to inform, to educate, and to seek Justice for ALL in Utah. Many criminal defendants, especially first-time offenders do not know that a criminal case may be commenced or filed against them without any notice whatsoever! Indeed, it is not uncommon in our experience here at the UJF for a defendant to call us response to one of our notice letters and say, “You have made a mistake; there is no way a criminal case was filed on me!!!” (The three !!! is not an exaggeration.)

After a few questions it is revealed that there was “something that happened around then” - the date of the incident shown on the Court Docket. Then, we might hear that, “the police officer told me that if I just told him what happened, everything would be fine.” Hmm … fine for who?

Well, anyway, it is important for people to have access to the Court Docket because it contains important information about the charges, upcoming hearing, assigned Judge, warrants issued (related topic for tomorrow), and more. The accused offender needs as much information as possible, as soon as possible, for the proper action to be taken by his or her attorney.

So, criminal defendants, or those who believe they may be a criminal defendant, can contact the Utah Justice Foundation and request a copy of the Court Docket for their case. They can then determine the precise status and get better advice from an attorney.  Defendants can either call us at 801-878-9269, or go to the Utah Justice Foundation website and click on the Request a Court Docket link under the Quick Links. A short form is filled out online and submitted via email, and then the UJF can look up the defendant’s case and transmit a copy of the Court Docket to the defendant via email.

Not all Court Dockets are available online, and there are important issues to consider before a criminal defendant makes a trip to the courthouse to get a copy of the docket. For example, is there an active warrant outstanding such that the unsuspecting offender would be taken into custody while trying to get a copy of his or her court docket.

The last example given is one of the reasons why the Utah Justice Foundation provides the free Request a Court Docket program. We also have a Warrant Check program, which will be the topic of my next post.

Make it a great day!

Eagle4Justice

Good evening from Salt Lake City, Utah.

My name is David Elwell, and I have the good fortune to serve as the Director of the Utah Justice Foundation. We seek Justice for ALL in Utah, which includes criminal defendants, victims of crimes, and the rest of the citizens of Utah.

It is with pleasure that I write a few words tonight about one of our three newest online service programs at the Utah Justice Foundation. This is a free online service designed to assist those individuals who have received a DUI citation with making a timely request for a DMV Per Se Hearing.

What is a DMV Per Se Hearing?  It is an administrative hearing conducted by the Driver’s License Division (DLD) of Utah to determine whether the individual who received the DUI citation shall have his or her driver’s license suspended. Many people cited for DUI do not read the fine print of the citation. Therefore, they may not realize that, in most cases, they may continue to drive for up to 30 days pending a determination by the DLD at the Per Se Hearing as to the issue of suspension of the license.

The most important information provided in the fine print is that the person cited has only 10 days from the date of the citation in which to make written request for the Per Se Hearing.  If the 10 days passes without request being made to the DLD, then the individual’s driver’s license will be automatically suspended for the period of time required under Utah law.  For a table showing the DLR’s administrative suspension periods as well as other penalties imposed for DUIs in Utah, go to the Utah Justice Foundation website and click on the DUI Cases link in the left column.

After reviewing the table and other information provided with regard to DUIs in Utah, a person can click on the Quick Link in the right column of the page - Request a DMV Hearing - and they will be taken to a page of information on the Per Se Hearing, including a link to the DLD approved form for requesting a hearing.

The person can fill out the approved form, print it, and then fax or mail it as indicated on the form. For information on what to do next, a quick call to the Utah Justice Foundation will get all of the person’s questions answered.

By the way, if a person misses the 10-day deadline for requesting the Per Se Hearing, it is possible to request a “late hearing.” Give us call and we can discuss the possibilities as, of course, each case is different.

David Elwell aka
Eagle4Justice

The Utah Justice Foundation has a mission to inform, to educate, and to seek Justice for ALL involved with the criminal justice system in the state of Utah. This Utah non-profit organization seeks to help criminal defendants receive fair and balanced Justice for their particular circumstances and case! It seeks long-term solutions for each defendant, while being mindful of the interests of victims and society.

Often times, criminal defendants may not even know that a case is pending against them (after being assured by the police officer that “everything will be fine if you just tell me what happened”). In response, the Utah Justice Foundation will provide informational tools to these defendants. There are three online tools or programs available for immediate use at www.UtahJusticeFoundation.org, and they are:

• Docket Request Program.
• Warrant Check Program.
• DMV Per Se Hearing Request Program.

The program names give us most of the story, but the Director of the Utah Justice Foundation has promised to provide further details right here in the coming days.

So stay tuned to the Utah Justice Foundation BLOG for more on these new online programs for criminal defendants …

The UJF.org BLOG was launched today, August 20th.  UJF stands for the Utah Justice Foundation, which is a Utah Non-Profit Corporation.

The Utah Justice Foundation has a Mission to inform, to educate, and to seek Justice for ALL involved with the criminal justice system in the state of Utah. We seek to help criminal defendants receive fair and balanced Justice for their particular circumstances and case! We seek long-term solutions for each defendant, while being mindful of the interests of victims and society.

In other words, we are Seeking Justice for ALL in Utah^SM

It does not appear that Utah has a Blog addressed to the criminal justice system so the UJF.org BLOG will begin to fill that void. Accordingly, we have added RSS Feeds from a DUI Blog and an LA Criminal Law Blog. Plus, we have added an Events Calendar page and list of Upcoming Events on the main Blog page.

More coming soon …