News & Updates

H.B. 68 Court Commissioner Amendments

Section Affected:
U.C.A. 53-5-711 Law enforcement officials and judges — Training requirements — Qualification — Revocation.
U.C.A. 76-10-506. Threatening with or using dangerous weapon in fight or quarrel.
U.C.A. 76-10-508. Discharge of firearm from a vehicle, near a highway, or in direction of any person, building, or vehicle — Penalties.
U.C.A. 76-10-508.1. Felony discharge of a firearm — Penalties.
U.C.A. 76-10-523. Persons exempt from weapons laws.

This Bill would;
• Add “court commissioner” to 53-5-711. We will explain what this is below.
• Change terminology in 76-10-506 from “those persons” to “an individual”, “a person” to “an individual”, “persons” to “individuals”, and “person’s” to “individual’s”.
• Changes terminology in 76-10-508 from “A person” to “an individual”, “any kind of” to “a”, “at any road signs” to “at a road sign”, “any highways” to “a highway”, “buildings” to “building”, and “person” to “individual”.
• Changes terminology in 76-10-508.1 from “a person” to “an individual”, “any person or persons” to “one or more individuals”, “person” to “individual”, “which” to “that”, and “any kind of” to “a”.
• Add “court commissioner” to the list of those exempt from this part and Title 53, Chapter 5, Part 7, Concealed Firearm Act in 76-10-523. Court commissioner is not defined under Utah law but is generally defined as a person appointed by a judge to assist in finding facts, hearing testimony from witnesses and resolving issues. It also changes terminology from “any person” to “an individual”.

We are not sure why the change of terms is included in this Bill since almost all laws use these common terms and only two of the five included laws have anything to do with a court commissioner.
Because this Bill is granting rights to a court commissioner to be able to protect themselves and not restricting anyone’s rights, we do not oppose this Bill.

 We Support This Bill