Criminal Defendants’ Constitutional Rights Anyone who is charged with a crime in Utah has very specific constitutional rights that apply to each criminal defendant throughout the entire proceeding. Those rights include: You have the right to be represented by an attorney. The court will appoint an attorney at no cost to you if: a) you cannot afford an attorney; and…
A lot of people in a struggling marriage want to get an annulment rather than a divorce because they believe there is a certain stigma that comes with divorce. That may be the case depending on your culture, religion, or other circumstances. The problem is that getting an annulment is much more difficult than getting a divorce. Divorce can be…
Antique Fraud There is a big market for antiques and some items can go for hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars. In the antique business one has to be wary of fakes. Remember the Salamander Papers in the 1980s? Producing fake historical documents, guns, clothing, and all other types of items is a big business. Have you ever…
The Case Recently the Utah Court of Appeals issued a ruling in an appeal concerning a Utah civil stalking injunction. The case is Roper v. Shovan, 2013 UT App 124. In that case the court addressed whether the district court erred in issuing the injunction. An appellate court will overturn a district court’s decision in a civil stalking case only…
When a spouse files for divorce the responding spouse has 20 days to file an answer to the complaint for divorce. Sometimes the parties have worked everything out before hand and so an answer is not necessary. When a Utah divorce is contested and the responding spouse files an answer the Utah Rules of Civil Procedure require the parties to…
The Utah Legislature has implemented some rules as a protection against over-zealous (tyrannical) justice court judges, many of whom are “jail happy.” The rules can act to prevent a judge from sending a defendant to jail…in most cases. Non DUI or Reckless Driving Cases For every case filed in a Utah Justice Court that is not a DUI or a…
Protective Orders Against Boyfriends and Girlfriends Protective orders in Utah have historically been limited to spouses and cohabitants (people living together) or former spouses and former cohabitants. Courts hand out protective orders like candy as it is and the Utah Legislature has just made it even easier to get a protective order and has all but guaranteed that Courts will…
What is an Enhanceable Crime? The Utah Legislature has taken it upon itself to give the district attorneys freedom to increase the category of a crime if the defendant has committed the same or similar crime in the past. For example, a crime that can be charged as a class B misdemeanor by itself may be charged as a class…
What is a Victim Impact Statement? Under common law, for every crime committed there needed to be a victim. That of course is no longer the case as there are a multitude of “victimless” crimes (e.g., possessing drugs, drinking alcohol under age, etc.) For those crimes that legitimately have victims (e.g., murder, assault, theft, etc.) the victim has obviously been…
Common Reasons to Modify a Divorce Decree After a divorce decree has been entered chances are something is going to change in your life or your ex’s that could warrant a modification of the decree. There are a few things that we see time and again that people want to change in their divorce decree. Changing the decree to lower…
