State v. Younge In State v. Younge, a decision handed down by the Utah Supreme Court on November 22, 2013, the court addressed the right to a speedy trial. In that case the defendant was charged with aggravated sexual assault approximately six years after the act was committed. In 1996, the defendant sexually assaulted a woman. The victim could not…
Most people who are involved in a divorce case will end up settling their disputes rather than going all the way through trial and having a judge decide the issues. This is advantageous for the parties because they are able to have much more influence over what happens in the case. The divorce decree that is entered is a document…
The United States Supreme Court has recognized that when law enforcement officers obtain evidence through illegal means, it is the court’s duty to suppress that evidence in order to deter the illegality. Nix v. Williams, 467 U.S. 431 (1984). When such evidence is suppressed, it prevents the prosecutor from making further use of that evidence in the state’s case against…
Here’s some quick knowledge for today: when a child turns 18 years old or graduates from high school (whichever occurs later) a current child support award is automatically changed to reflect that fact and a new child support amount is calculated based on the number of children remaining and the parties incomes from the original order. For example, if a…
A lot of people who are engaged in contentious litigation (like most criminal cases) tend to believe that if they can show that a witness is a really bad guy that the judge will discount the witness’s testimony and the defendant’s case will be dismissed. We often have to disabuse our clients of this notion. Courts are interested in facts…
In every divorce case brought in the Fourth District Court – Provo, the court requires that the parties file a pretrial order which sets forth what issues remain in the case to be tried by the judge and generally what the status of the case is at the time the order is filed. The court has a form order that…
Driving under the influence of validly prescribed drugs is not illegal in Utah, but for whatever reason law enforcement does not always remember that. Utah Law On Driving Under the Influence of Prescription Drugs A lot of people take prescribed drugs every day. They wake up, get ready, take their prescriptions, and go to work. Each of those people is…
Plea Negotiations and the Judge Any time a criminal defendant enters into a plea of any nature, he is opening himself up to the whims of the judge to decide how he should be sentenced. The judge has ultimate authority and all the discretion in the world when it comes to sentencing in Utah. In some types of cases the…
A couple of days ago KSL ran a story about the potential benefits that a medicine made from a marijuana extract may have for persons suffering from epilepsy. The medicine is called Alepsia and is derived from a hemp plant. It contains THC, the active ingredient of marijuana which can give a high, but in low amounts. It also is…
Here’s an interesting situation we ran into recently. A driver was driving down the freeway at or under the speed limit. He kept his hands at ten and two and was looking straight ahead. A highway patrol officer thought that this was suspicious (yeah that’s right – following all driving laws is now suspicious to law enforcement), so he started…
