"It doesn't make sense to exempt the justice courts, because that's where most of these occur," said Marvin Dodge, administrator for the Utah Substance Abuse and Anti-Violence Coordinating Council. "It's frustrating."

It's frustrating for Dodge and others because dozens of officials and community leaders spent months researching and designing legislation as part of Gov. Mike Leavitt's Governor's Council on Driving Under the Influence.

Utah's court system has protected the philosophy of operating justice courts despite advice to the contrary.

In December 2001, a federal panel of judges, administrators and other experts came to Utah to study DUI concerns in collaboration with the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration

If Utah really wants to tackle these inadequacies, the study says, it must do something about the localized justice court system, which is deemed a major roadblock toward progress on the DUI problem. The study's findings represent the most direct advice Utah has received from an outside federal group about state agency response to such concerns.

The NHTSA organizes teams to assess DUI in various states. Utah's Department of Public Safety paid about $15,000 for the assessment. The state's judicial system seems to have areas most gravely needing improvement, according to the study.

Karl Grube, a 25-year trial court judge from St. Petersburg, Fla., had trouble getting any information about how many of those charged with DUIs are actually convicted. He received some DUI arrest information from state driver's license officials and limited information from the Administrative Office of the Courts.

"Doing the best with what we had," Grube said he and his colleagues determined that Utah has only a 67 percent conviction rate for DUIs in Utah's justice courts and 80 percent in Utah's district courts. Both figures are well below the national average of 90 percent.

He suggested that Utah dump its "antiquated" justice court system.

"This is something that requires attention," said Grube, who is also a national educator on judicial issues. "Other states can do it, but your state is having a difficult time."

---

E-mail: lucy@desnews.com