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Federal Court
The Frank E. Moss U.S. Courthouse at 350 S. Main in downtown Salt Lake City houses all federal district court records. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court, an adjunct to the district court, is located on the third floor, while a law library with more than 15,000 volumes is on the second floor. Federal cases often have to do with bankruptcy, civil rights, labor law as well as criminal law.
Dockets and pleadings for civil cases filed after July 1989 and for criminal cases since November 1992 may be viewed in the clerk’s office or on a Website called “PACER”. Searches on the PACER site cost $.08 per page accessed.
Know the law
• Municipal Ordinances: Most cities have an online codebook viewer allowing the muckraker the opportunity to read the letter of the law in different cities for themselves. Below, you’ll find links for:
Salt Lake City
South Salt Lake
West Jordan
West Valley City
Taylorsville
Midvale
Murray
Draper
Riverton
Bountiful
Layton
Ogden
Provo
Logan
Park City
St. George
Utah Code covers it all, from liquor laws to cemeteries to dogs to mining regulations. It’s all here, plus you can search by keyword.
Police Departments
Every police department in the state has a Website, and most of them suck rocks. Initial contact reports, which are those documenting police actions upon arrival to a call for service, are “normally public.” Follow-up or investigative reports are generally not public. Many police departments, however, assert that you must be somehow involved in the case in order to receive any associated police reports. They are wrong. We’ve encountered this misunderstanding repeatedly at police departments across the county and state and, without fail, we manage to educate—and often re-educate—these law enforcement agencies as to the correct interpretation of the state’s open-record laws.
Jail and Prison
The place to really check up on your neighbor:
Looking for an offender currently under the jurisdiction of the Utah Department of Corrections (i.e., in prison or on parole)? You can find them here by name.
Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office: Search the jail’s current inmate population or history. Requests for police reports, mug shots and arrest records must be made via mail or in person.
• CrimeReports.com Nationwide crime reporting and mapping system, including sex offender mapping. Supplement with SpotCrime.com, Similar to CrimeReports.com, but with less quantitative data and more qualitative detail for each crime reported.
Utah Sex Offender Registry: Search by name or location, or browse the entire list.
National Sex Offender Search: Search by name or location.
Legal Resources
• Utah Bar: The place to look for everything from legal opinions to disciplinary records. Includes a searchable member directory and the Bar Journal that lists public disciplinary actions against attorneys—among myriad other features.
American Civil Liberties Union of Utah: A storehouse of information when it comes to local violations of civil liberties and civil rights, but sometimes reluctant to part with the intel.
Utah Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers: As the name implies. If you become a member, you can access lots of great links and information.
Utah Statewide Association of Prosecutors: Included here for parity, but they have no Website and probably wouldn’t talk to you anyway.
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