From Deseret News archives:
Judges getting raise; other measures fail
While the top budgetary request from the courts was granted, the 2005 Utah Legislature did not fund many things the courts had asked for. But justice will go on, say court officials.
Judicial raises were the top priority this year, said Assistant State Court Administrator Rick Schwermer.
"We demonstrated that judges' salaries had fallen behind those of other states and the salaries of other lawyers in public service," Schwermer said.
Second District Judge Jon Memmott, who chaired an ad-hoc committee that studied judicial salaries, told lawmakers early in the session that Utah's judges make $104,000 while judges in nearby states average $111,000.
Schwermer said the issue is not pay equity for current judges necessarily but rather offering a salary that will be attractive to experienced attorneys who may apply for future judicial positions.
"Future vacancies need to be attractive to public and private sector attorneys," Schwermer said.
Court officials asked for a 7 percent increase, which would have cost an additional $921,000, to bring salaries up to $111,280. This week, the court section of the budget was approved for a 6 percent increase.
However, court officials did not get the $370,000 to hire five new law clerks. In some rural areas, officials said, there is only one clerk for the court.
"We have small courts who have one clerk, and if she goes to lunch or if she was sick," Schwermer said, the court office is usually forced to shut down.
The Legislature did approve funds for one new juvenile judge in the 2nd District, which includes Weber, Davis and Cache counties, but did not fund a request for another judge in the 4th District, which covers Utah, Wasatch, Juab and Millard counties.
A total of $718,600 was approved to fund the construction of a new court complex in West Jordan, which will consolidate courts from West Valley City and Sandy.
Rejected was a $350,000 request to help the Guardian ad Litem's Office, which provides attorneys to represent children in domestic violence and criminal cases. A fund request to help develop a statewide electronic document filing system also was shot down. Schwermer said the courts will continue to develop Internet filing but at a slower pace.
Aside from budget requests, several bills were passed to help the courts and create new programs.
SB91 was passed to allow Utah courts to pay a $12,000 membership fee to become part of a nationwide interstate compact for juvenile courts.
HB4 also passed. It will require most divorcing couples in Utah to try out-of-court mediation first before seeking a traditional court divorce proceeding. Court officials point to studies that show that those who settle divorces through mediation tend to have less animosity toward each other than those who contest their divorces in court.
The divorce mediation program was given $78,800 to pay for a coordinator to start the program.
E-mail: gfattah@desnews.com
