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Utah chief justice urges funding for juvenile reforms, new judge in State of the Judiciary address
Summary
Chief Justice Matthew B. Durrant told the Utah House that courts have modernized with statewide electronic case management, expanded problem‑solving courts and new access initiatives; he urged full funding for Justice Reinvestment Initiative elements and requested a new judgeship in the Fifth Judicial District.
Chief Justice Matthew B. Durrant delivered the annual State of the Judiciary to the Utah House on Jan. 23, citing two decades of technological and procedural change in state courts and urging lawmakers to fund outstanding reforms, including components of the Justice Reinvestment Initiative and a new district judgeship for the state’s rapidly growing Fifth Judicial District.
Durrant framed recent court changes as the product of data‑driven management and widened access to justice. "It's no secret Utah is the best managed state in the country," he said, and described the courts’ shift from pilot projects to statewide systems: a fully electronic case management environment, expanded drug, mental‑health and veterans courts, and an online court assistance program and self‑help centers that served roughly 20,000 people last year.
Why it matters: Durrant told the legislature that those investments reduce barriers for self‑represented litigants and improve outcomes in alternatives to incarceration. He also highlighted two initiatives lawmakers will see in the session: licensed paralegal practitioners (LPPs) to provide limited, certified legal services in areas such as landlord‑tenant and eviction cases, and online dispute resolution for small claims, which the court expects to allow negotiation, mediation and, where necessary, judicial decision‑making online.
On juvenile justice and Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI), Durrant urged caution about moving reforms forward without matching resources. He said the state’s juvenile justice study committee supports evidence‑based reforms but that the legislature should ensure adequate funding before adopting certain proposals. "If the juvenile justice reform proposal cannot be adequately funded... I think the better course would be to defer it to next year so that the reforms can be matched to the resources," he said.
Durrant also requested one new district court judgeship for the Fifth Judicial District, citing workload projections in the rapidly growing southwest part of the state. "For several years our workload has been such... that we need an additional judge," he said.
The chief justice praised long‑time court administrator Dan Becker, who is retiring after 22 years, for guiding administrative modernization and thanked the legislature for adopting a merit‑based selection process for judges. The address closed with the House thanking the justices and dissolving the Committee of the Whole.
Sources and attributions: Quotes and assertions above are from Chief Justice Matthew B. Durrant's address as recorded in the House transcript on Jan. 23, 2017. Where Durrant named initiatives (LPPs, online dispute resolution, JRI) the article reports the initiatives as described by the chief justice during the address.
What’s next: The chief justice’s funding requests and the judgeship recommendation will rely on the legislature’s budget and committee process; the House returned to floor business and considered third reading bills after the address.
