This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The Justice Court for unincorporated Salt Lake County has received a reprieve.
In July 2012, the county informed state court officials that it was considering dissolving its court and dividing its 10,000 or so cases between other justice courts operated by the valley's cities.
But nothing has happened yet, and Deputy Mayor Nichole Dunn said potential changes in the court's future have been put on hold while the county conducts a broader evaluation of the unincorporated area's future and the possible creation of a municipal-services district.
Content to let that process play out, the County Council earlier this month approved a resolution asking the state Justice Courts Standards Committee and the Utah Judicial Council to recertify the court for four more years when its existing certification expires next February.
That doesn't mean the council can't act within the next four years to get rid of the court, said Councilman Richard Snelgrove, who challenged Judge Shauna Graves-Robertson with several questions about her Justice Court's workload and staff levels.
"I want to see justice done and that we get the best returns for our money," said the Republican.
Graves-Robertson, a Justice Court judge since 1999, assured him that her court was "pretty efficient and run pretty smoothly."
"Few other courts have a caseload as large as ours with the number of personnel we have," she said, citing her own example of being the unincorporated area's only judge while Salt Lake City's justice court has four judges and West Valley's has two. Those two courts, respectively, handled 56,300 and 23,840 cases last year compared to 9,427 for Graves-Robertson's court, according to online records of the Utah State Court System.
After the council passed its resolution a little more than two years ago, Dunn said she and Ralph Chamness from the county district attorney's office met with a number of cities to see if they were interested in assuming some of the unincorporated area court's caseload, expenses and revenues. Some were, she said, some weren't.
Ardent opposition to the idea was expressed by the Association of Community Councils Together, an umbrella organization of leaders from community councils across the unincorporated area. "They did not feel comfortable having their justice-court services transferred to municipalities," Dunn said.
In addition, she said it would be premature to address the court issue until after a yearlong study of governance issues in the unincorporated area is completed. The conclusions that emerge from Mayor Ben McAdams' "Community Preservation Act" could include suggestions to revamp the justice system, Dunn added.
"That look will take time," she said. "We're taking more time and research to find what is the best customer service for unincorporated area residents."
Twitter: @sltribmikeg