Utah judiciary warns of falling applicants and heavier caseloads, urges pay increases and more judges

Chief Justice (name not specified) told the commission that the Utah judiciary is seeing “an alarming trend of fewer and fewer applicants for judicial positions” and urged the panel to recommend cost-of-living and salary increases to help attract candidates.

The request came during a presentation about workload and recruitment pressures. The chief justice said judges are leaving private-sector pay for public service only when the role is sufficiently compensated and stressed that salary gaps with private law firms were a major factor reducing applications.

Judge David Connors, a commission member, asked whether statutory changes have increased judges’ day-to-day workload. “There are a lot of areas where, because of legislative development, we are asking our judicial officers to do more without sort of offering anything in exchange for that,” Connors said.

Marco (judicial staff, weighted caseload studies) told the commission the judiciary uses weighted caseload studies to measure workload by case type. Marco said that while debt-collection filings topped 70,000 in the most recent fiscal year, those cases typically require less judicial time because defendants often don’t appear. By contrast, automobile tort cases numbered about 2,300 but require far more time per case.

Marco also attributed substantial workload growth to statutory changes and technology-driven demands. He said that a statutory change that reclassified certain second-offense DUIs into class A misdemeanors transferred about 1,600 DUI cases from justice courts to district courts without adding judicial officers. He said warrant work has grown from roughly 7,000 requests a year a decade ago to about 19,200 in fiscal year 2025, an increase of about 12,000 requests.

“All of this in aggregate makes judges busier,” Marco said, citing a statewide average caseload now at roughly 112 percent of the benchmark workload per judge and noting some districts are as high as about 122 percent.

The chief justice told the commission that the Court of Appeals, created in 1987 with seven judges, has not had additional judges added despite population and workload growth. The chief justice said the judiciary sees both rural and urban courts losing applicants and that increased pay would likely narrow the gap with private practice and increase applications.

A commission member who said they serve on the American Bar Association’s judicial security committee raised safety concerns as a national factor deterring applicants. “I have very little doubt that one of the reasons … persons to apply for judicial positions has to do with that,” the member said, citing high-profile attacks and murders of judges’ family members. The member said a bill in Congress has been proposed to create a network for states to share judicial-security information; currently, related coordination exists largely through the U.S. Marshals Service.

Chief Justice (name not specified) summarized the judiciary’s top near-term needs as: 1) better ability to retain employees through compensation; 2) additional judges in high-demand districts; and 3) judicial salary increases to attract and retain judges.

Committee members discussed the commission’s scope. Some said direct hiring of judges is outside the panel’s authority but that compensation recommendations and a statement about capacity shortfalls would be appropriate to relay to legislators. Several members asked staff to provide comparative data from surrounding states and the Intermountain region to help the commission calibrate recommendations.

Votes at a glance

- Motion to accept minutes from the June 4, 2025 meeting: motion moved (not specified in transcript), seconded by Judge David Connors; voice vote recorded as “aye” and the chair ruled the motion passed (no roll-call tally provided).

- Motion to adjourn: passed by voice vote (no roll-call tally provided).