A big chunk of the cost for having your case expunged in Utah is the fee that the Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification charges to give you a certificate of eligibility and the fee that the Court charges to file your petition. These amount to over $200 for each case. …
There’s been a theme lately of the Utah legislature making improvements to the laws on expungements and record reductions. (See Utah’s Clean Slate Law, and Utah Makes Drug Offenses Easier to Expunge). Good on them, I say. Another small change to the language of the “402 Reduction” statute this spring …
In 2019, Utah became the second state in the country to pass an “automatic” expungement law. It went into effect in 2020, but as of the date of this post (in Summer of 2021) no cases have been automatically expunged yet. Recently, I volunteered as an “expert expungement attorney” for …
[UPDATE: the Utah Legislature passed, and the governor signed, a “compromise bill” that overwrites most of Proposition 2. More information and a new post will be forthcoming.] Utah just passed Proposition 2, the Utah Medical Cannabis Act. But, being Utah, I can promise you it is going to be a …
Over the last couple years, Utah has made some major changes in it’s expungement eligibility guidelines–almost all of them for the good. The most important change has made it easier for people with several drug possession offenses to get them expunged, but the changes also make it easier for people …
There’s an old saying, “You go to war with the army you have.” It’s like another way of saying, when you have to do something, you do the best with what you’ve got. Well, what the Park City Police Department has to do is fight crime. And what they’ve got is …
Probably once a week, I get asked if a California Medical Marijuana Card makes any difference in Utah. Up until last year, I had to say no. Fortunately, Utah’s new Medical Cannabis Act does contain some reciprocity for med cards from out of state, but there are some important caveats …
Carbon County, Utah has no freeways, but it does have beautiful, windy Highway 6, the main route from Salt Lake City and points west to Denver and points east. Consequently, it gets a lot of traffic for a small, rural, county in the Utah desert. They also do a fair …
Can Police Have a Dog Sniff My Car Without My Permission? Can Police Search My Car without Permission Based on the “Alert” of a K-9 Unit? What if the Cops Said the Dog Alerted on My Car, but Then They Didn’t Find Any Drugs? What if the Cops Searched My …
Is It Legal and Ethical for Defense Attorneys to Send Direct Mail to People Charged with a Crime? Isn’t Direct Mail to People Charged with a Crime Just Like “Ambulance-Chasing?” Does Your Firm Send Direct Mailings? Is it Legal and Ethical for Attorney’s to Send Direct Mail? In a word, …
© 2023 Dain Smoland, Attorney at Law PLLC, a Salt Lake City Criminal Defense Attorney