In court Thursday, a lawyer representing disabled Utahns asked U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball to order the state to come up with a plan to provide help "at a reasonable pace."

Some people have been on the waiting list for services for years, attorney Robert Denton said, and now are at risk of being institutionalized as they lose basic skills and their conditions deteriorate.

"There has to be more of an effort," Denton told Kimball in the closing arguments of trial on a class-action lawsuit that claims the wait for services is discriminatory. "The defendants have to break the logjam."

Craig Barlow, who represents the state and its Division of Services for People with Disabilities (DSPD), contended that there is no evidence showing any plaintiff is in danger of being institutionalized or of any discrimination.

"The plaintiffs have proved at most they must wait for services," he said.

The suit, filed in December 2002 by the Salt Lake City-based Disability Law Center, alleges that requiring people with mental retardation or other conditions to wait for support services from the state violates federal law. The waiting list had 448 people in 1990 but now has 1,750, Denton said.

The state denies the allegations and says that developmentally disabled people with the greatest need are served first. Budget limitations make it impossible to eliminate the wait, officials say.

DSPD has a budget of about $167 million and served about 4,250 people last year. Barlow said the triage system of ranking who gets assistance first is "competent, comprehensive and legal."

In response to a question by Kimball on how the availability of money affects his case, Denton said funding is a separate issue. If the state is ordered to modify how it assists disabled residents, "then we can only hope the Legislature will respond in an appropriate fashion," he said.

The judge took the case under consideration and said he will issue a ruling next month.

pmanson@sltrib.com