Views from the Bench

• Jurisdiction: Utah,United States
• Citation: Vol. 37 No. 1 Pg. 12
• Publication year: 2024
• Pages: 12

Views from the Bench Vol. 37 No. 1 Pg. 12 Utah Bar Journal January 2024

January 2024

An Update on Utah's Rule Providing for Water Law Case Assignments to Judges Who Have Been Educated About Water Law

By Senior Judge Kate Appleby

Utah's Judicial Council in 2022 adopted a rule establishing district court water judges. See Rule 6-104, Code of Judicial Administration. The rule provides that the council will designate volunteer district court judges to serve as water judges and establishes a procedure for assigning to them certain kinds of water law cases. Parties in the initial stages of litigation may request such an assignment. A request made later in the litigation may result in the case being reassigned at the discretion of the judge who already has the case. Judges who volunteer as water judges either will have, or will cultivate, the expertise necessary to adjudicate these often complex and long-in-duration cases. This article describes developments since the rule was adopted, and since my first article on this topic. See Kate Appleby, Views from the Bench, 35 Utah B.J. 14 (Sept/Oct. 2022).^[1]

Upon a party's request, actions filed under Utah Code Title 73 (Water and Irrigation), Chapters 3 and 4 (Appropriation and Determination of Water Rights), will be assigned to a water law judge. For cases initiated before the rule...