Utah chief justice pushes statewide "eEverything," discovery reform and oversight of drug courts amid staffing cuts

Chief Justice Christine Durham told the Utah House in a committee of the whole that Utah’s courts are accelerating a shift to a fully electronic record and pressing forward with civil discovery reforms while managing persistent staffing and budget pressures.

Durham framed the plan as a response to sustained caseload growth and recent budget reductions, saying the courts must ‘‘organize ourselves efficiently’’ and use technology and performance measurement to preserve access to justice. ‘‘We’re moving to the use of an electronic record for all court business at all court levels in every court in the state, something that is yet to be done in any state court system,’’ she said.

The chief justice placed those technical changes in the context of scale and mission. She told lawmakers that state courts handle the vast majority of U.S. legal disputes and gave…