Utah chief justice outlines court priorities, asks for judgeships and juvenile staff

Chief Justice Zimmerman told the Utah House on Jan. 16 that relations between the judicial branch and the other branches have "improved the level of trust and understanding" since last year and urged lawmakers to support the judiciary’s planning and budget requests. "As the chief executive officer of the Utah Judicial Council ... I thank you for this opportunity to report on the state of Utah's judiciary," Zimmerman said.

Zimmerman outlined several concrete initiatives the Judicial Council is implementing or studying: a pilot alternative dispute resolution program requiring parties in some civil suits to consider mediation or arbitration, expanded judicial performance evaluation measures, statewide computerization and networking of court records to improve accuracy and permit future electronic filing, and an experiment to substitute videotape for written transcripts in routine cases to speed appeals and reduce costs.

He described long-range proposals from the Judicial Council’s Family Court Task Force, including a recommendation to reorganize district and juvenile courts so "family-related matters" could be handled in a coordinated fashion under a "one family, one judge" approach. Zimmerman noted that proposal was still under consideration by the Judicial Council.

On resources, Zimmerman asked lawmakers to act on several personnel changes prompted by recent case law. Citing the decision in the case titled Salt Lake City v. Holmes, he said the court system must convert some court commissioners—lawyers hired to assist judges—into district judges in places where commissioners had been exercising judicial authority the court found was unconstitutional. "Existing workloads in courts that have been using commissioners in ways that offend the constitution cannot be handled without replacing those commissioners with qualified judges," Zimmerman said.

He also requested more juvenile-court staff to address a rising juvenile caseload. "One third of all juveniles will be referred to juvenile court before they're 18 years of age," he warned, and said delay in disposition in some courts risks longer backlogs unless additional judges and staff are provided.

Zimmerman described a firm construction bid of $68,300,000 for the consolidated Salt Lake Courts Complex and noted the governor’s proposal to fund construction primarily with a revenue bond to be repaid largely from increased court filing fees deposited in a restricted fund. "That firm bid looks very advantageous to the state," he said, while acknowledging rising future construction costs.

He closed by asking the legislature to partner with the judiciary to preserve an independent, efficient court system: "We in the Utah judiciary are confident that together, we can meet this challenge." The chief justice’s remarks were delivered in a Committee of the Whole and followed by a motion to dissolve the committee, which carried by voice vote.

What’s next: Judicial budget and staffing requests will be considered by the relevant House committees in the coming weeks as appropriation and judiciary committees review detailed proposals.