State Bar News
| Publication year | 2016 |
| Pages | 42 |
March, 2016
Commission Highlights
The Utah State Bar Board of Commissioners received the following reports and took the actions indicated during the January 22, 2016 Commission Meeting held at the Utah State Bar Law & Justice Center in Salt Lake City.
1. Commissioners voted to approve making the 2016 Fall Forum a two day event.
2. Commissioners voted to support the concept that all judges, including Justice Court judges, have a law degree.
3. Commissioners voted to approve spending $4,500 for half of the cost of the ABA review of OPC.
4. Commissioners voted to nominate John Lund to run for Bar President-Elect.
5. Commissioners selected Barbara Hjelle to receive the Dorathy Merrill Brothers Award.
6. Commissioners selected Reyes Aguilar and Carl Hernandez to receive the Raymond S. Uno Award.
7. Commissioners selected Robert A. Oliver, Joane Pappas White, Craig C. Halls, and Christina Ross Sloan as the nominees to present to the Governor for the Seventh Judicial District Nominating Commission.
8. Commissioners agreed to review section allocation figures for vote in two weeks via telephone conference to approve changes to allocation policies.
The minute text of this and other meetings of the Bar Commission are available at the office of the Executive Director.
Tax Notice
Pursuant to Internal Revenue Code 6033(e)(1), no income tax deduction shall be allowed for that portion of the annual license fees allocable to lobbying or legislative-related expenditures. For the tax year 2015, that amount is 1.68% of the mandatory license fee.
MCLE Reminder – Even Year Reporting Cycle
July 1, 2014–June 30, 2016
Active Status Lawyers complying in 2016 are required to complete a minimum of 24 hours of Utah approved CLE, which shall include a minimum of three hours of accredited ethics. One of the ethics hours shall be in the area of professionalism and civility. A minimum of twelve hours must be live in-person CLE. Please remember that your MCLE hours must be completed by June 30 and your report must be filed by July 31. For more information and to obtain a Certificate of Compliance, please visit our website at www.utahbar.org/mcle.
If you have any questions, please contact Sydnie Kuhre, MCLE Director at sydnie.kuhre@utahbar.org or (801) 297-7035 or Hannah Roberts, MCLE Assistant at hannah.roberts@utahbar.org or (801) 297-7052.
Call for Nominations for the 2016 Pro Bono Publico Awards
The deadline for nominations is April 1, 2016.
The following Pro Bono Publico awards will be presented at the Law Day Celebration on May 1, 2016:
• Young Lawyer of the Year
• Law Firm of the Year
• Law Student or Law School Group of the Year
To download a nomination form and for additional information please go to: http://lawday.utahbar.org/lawdayevents.html If you have questions please contact the Access to Justice Director, Tyler Needham at: probono@utahbar.org or 801-297-7027
Food and Clothing Drive Participants and Volunteers
We would like to thank all participants and volunteers for their assistance and support in this year's Food and Clothing Drive. This year's Drive had great participation, and we collected at least one-third more food and clothing than in recent previous years, with far wider personal participation by individual members. A full large truck full of food, clothing and toiletries were donated and delivered for immediate distribution. Jason Ensign provided approximately 100 toiletry packages that he personally assembled as an Eagle Scout project; and the employees at the Utah State Bar assembled approximately seventy-five toiletry packages too. They were first class!! An additional approximate aggregate amount of over $4,000 in cash donations was also donated to The Utah Food Bank, Eagle Ranch Ministries, Women & Children in Jeopardy, and The Rescue Mission. Further, we purchased complete hams and all the trimmings to assist 150 low income families to prepare their Holiday feast; these items were distributed to these families on December 22, 2015, through The Eagle Ranch Ministry.
We would also like to thank all of the individual contacts that we made this year and look forward to working with you next year; we also appreciated all of the email correspondence and comments that we received from many Bar members and others about this year's Drive. The publicity we received encouraged a number of non-Bar members to participate, and we also had the opportunity to outfit one homeless veteran who had heard about the Drive and had come down to see if we could help him. He went away with two changes of clothing, a blanket, a toiletry package, a ski hat and a pack to hold it all! It provided a very special moment for us, and made us wonder how it would be to be able to do that for everyone that is out in the cold on our winter nights. We plan to discuss that issue further.
Thank you all for your kindness and generosity.
Yours very sincerely,
Leonard W. Burningham
Lincoln Mead
April Burningham
When the Constitution Moved into the Police Station: Miranda at 50
by Sean Toomey, Utah State Bar Communications Director
The 2016 Law Day theme is "Miranda: More than Words." Law Day was established by Congress in 1961 as "a special day of celebration by the American people in appreciation of their liberties." The Utah State Bar's public campaign for Law Day 2016 has the advantage that people know about their "right to remain silent" in a way they were not familiar with King John's proclamation of 1214, Magna Carta. We hope to help people understand how their Miranda rights derived directly from the Constitution.
As many readers may remember from law school, in the decades before Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966), was decided, a number of opinions recognized rights based on the Sixth Amendment, which states that "the accused shall.. .have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense."
In Powell v. Alabama, 287 U.S. 45 (1932), the United States Supreme Court reversed an Alabama conviction in which four men stood trial six days after indictment.
Prior to that time, the trial judge had 'appointed all the members of the bar' for the limited 'purpose of arraigning the defendants.' Whether they would represent the defendants thereafter if no counsel appeared in their behalf was a matter of speculation only, or, as the judge indicated, of mere anticipation on the part of the court.
Id. at 56.
The court concluded:
In a capital case, where the defendant is unable to employ counsel.. .it is the duty of the court, whether requested or not, to assign counsel for him as a necessary requisite of due process of law, and that duty is not discharged by an assignment at such a time or under such circumstances as to preclude the giving of effective aid in the preparation and trial of the case.
Id. at 71.
Thirty-one years later, in Gideon v. Wainwright, ill U.S. 335 (1963), the Court decided that the Constitution makes no distinction between capital and noncapital cases. The Fourteenth Amendment requires due process of law for the deprival of 'liberty,' just as for deprival of 'life,' and there cannot constitutionally be a difference in the quality of the process based merely upon a supposed difference in the sanction involved.
Id. at 349.
In Escobedo v. Illinois, 378 U.S. 478 (1964), the right to counsel guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment was extended from the trial court to the station house. The Court determined that statements made by a suspect in police custody who had been refused an opportunity to consult with his counsel and who had n ot been warned of his constitutional right to keep silent, could not be used against him at trial.
Escobedo holds that a defendant must be afforded his right to counsel as soon as".. .the process shifts from investigatory to accusatory - when its focus is on the accused and its purpose is to elicit a confession - our adversary system begins to...
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