Utah’s courts have put a wide set of rule changes into effect, including a new framework for fee sharing between lawyers, streamlined civil procedure and a detailed rule for judicial interviews of children.
New professional-conduct Rule 5.8 governs how lawyers may divide a fee. Related amendments adjust the general rules on fees and professional independence. The package also adds guidance to the misconduct rule addressing attempts to make settlement or dispute resolution conditional on withdrawing, or declining to file, a professional-misconduct complaint.
On the civil side, Rule 30 removes obsolete requirements that deposition officers physically seal and label records. Rule 37 aligns discovery-issue statements with a limit of four pages or 1,500 words. Rule 74 no longer requires former counsel to sign a substitution notice, reducing the ability of an uncooperative former lawyer to delay a client’s change of representation.
The most substantial new procedural provision is Rule 110. It establishes safeguards for a judge or commissioner who interviews a minor child in a district-court proceeding. The rule addresses when an interview is appropriate, judicial training, recording, participation by an attorney guardian ad litem and access to the record. It does not govern ordinary child testimony or interviews conducted by other people.
Separate amendments modernise the process for requesting entry of a divorce decree and correct proportionality cross-references in the discovery rules. The Utah Supreme Court’s orders make the package effective November 1.
Utah Courts has published the approved professional-conduct changes and civil-procedure amendments.
