GENERAL INFORMATION

Hours of Operation

The Office of the Clerk is open between the hours of 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m (Mountain Time) Monday through Thursday, and 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. on Fridays..

Pleadings may be filed in the 24-hour box located on the south porch of the Main Street entrance to the Frank E. Moss Courthouse.

Holidays

The following are holidays on which the court will be closed:

New Year's Day, January 1
Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. (Third Monday in January)
Presidents' Day (Third Monday in February)
Memorial Day (Last Monday in May)
Independence Day, July 4
Pioneer Day, July 24
Labor Day (First Monday in September)
Columbus Day (Second Monday in October)
Veterans' Day, November 11
Thanksgiving Day (Fourth Thursday in November)
Christmas Day, December 25

Calling the Court

Call us at (801) 524-6100 between 8:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday except government holidays. If you have trouble getting through, dial (801) 524-6111 for the automated receptionist.

Court Divisions

District of Utah Map (by county)

Northern

Counties:
- Box Elder
- Cache
- Davis
- Morgan
- Rich
- Weber

Central

Counties:
- Beaver
- Carbon
- Daggett
- Duchesne
- Emery
- Garfield
- Grand
- Iron
- Juab
- Kane
- Millard
- Piute
- Salt Lake
- San Juan
- Sanpete
- Sevier
- Summit
- Tooele
- Uintah
- Utah
- Wasatch
- Washington
- Wayne

All court records are maintained at the headquarters location, the Frank E. Moss U.S. Courthouse. The courthouse is located at 350 South Main Street at the corner of Fourth South and Main Streets in downtown Salt Lake City. All district judges have chambers and courtrooms in Salt Lake City. There is a courtroom and an unstaffed clerk's office in the Federal Building in Ogden, about 40 miles north of Salt Lake City. Parties may request, for purposes of convenience or other good reason, that proceedings be conducted at Ogden rather than Salt Lake City.

Click on the map to browse, to get driving directions, or to print the map

Map by MapQuest

Number of Judges

The court's complement of judicial officers includes five active district court judges, four senior district judges, four full-time magistrate judges, and two part-time magistrate judges.

Court Caseload

Civil Case Filings: approximately 1100 cases a year
Criminal Case Filings: 900 cases a year

Magistrate Judge Authority

Magistrate judges hear civil matters pursuant to an order of reference entered in the case by the assigned district court judge. Magistrate judges hear preliminary matters in felony criminal cases pursuant to a general order of reference and independent statutory authority. Magistrate judges have the authority to hear misdemeanor cases and civil cases upon consent of the parties.

Bankruptcy Court

The United States Bankruptcy Court is an adjunct to the district court. Its jurisdiction is based upon statute, and matters are referred to it by a general order of reference issued by the district court judges. The reference can be withdrawn in a specific case, upon motion before the district court. Decisions of the bankruptcy court can be appealed to the district court or to the bankruptcy appellate panel.

There are three bankruptcy court judges and a separate clerk's office for the bankruptcy court. The bankruptcy court is housed at the Frank E. Moss Courthouse on the third floor.

Appeals Court

Final decisions of the district court are appealable to the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in Denver, Colorado. There is also a specialized United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C. which hears certain types of appeals involving patents and copyrights. Approximately 190 cases were appealed last year to the Tenth Circuit.

Procedural Rules

Practice is governed by the Federal Rules of Civil and Criminal Procedure. Bankruptcy proceedings are governed by the Federal Bankruptcy Rules. The District of Utah's Local Rules of Practice supplement the federal rules. Printed copies are available from the clerk for a modest fee or you may download them from this website.

Civil and Criminal Case Dockets

The dockets for all civil cases filed after July 1989 and for all criminal cases opened during or after November 1992 are maintained electronically. The dockets for these cases may be viewed on computers located in the lobby of the clerk's office or through a remote electronic access service maintained by the clerk's office and referred to as "PACER." Dockets for most civil cases filed prior to July 1989 and for most criminal cases filed prior to November 1992 are maintained and available on paper.

Some cases were entered into the electonic docket system in summary or skeleton version during the transition from manual to automated docketing. This means that only significant entries were entered to provide an outline of the major events that transpired in the case up to the time that case was converted from manual to automated mode. All subsquent docket entries are on the automated system.

U.S. Courts Law Library

The Law Library is located in room 201 of the Frank E. Moss Federal Courthouse. The phone number is (801)524-3505. It is open from 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, except on federal holidays.

The library maintains a small collection of over 15,000 volumes. The materials include the Pacific Reporter, the state codes of all six states in the 10^th Circuit (Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming), all the Federal Reporters except Court of Claims, Military Justice and the Federal and Pacific Digests. We have the Restatements of the Law, Uniform Laws Annotated, C.J.S. and AmJur2d. The main focus of the collection is on materials relating to federal law. The collection's strengths are in the areas of bankruptcy, civil rights, labor law, federal procedure, criminal law, and jury instructions. Since 1990, the library has received a copy of each memorandum opinions issued by each district judge. They are kept in a file by the name of the judge in chronological order.

Access

The library maintains a collection of reference books and materials for use by the judges, judicial and court staff, the bar and the public. Access to the library is available to the bar and the public when a library staff member is present between the hours of 9:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. on weekdays.

Library materials do not circulate to the bar and the general public.

Copying

The library has a copy machine for public use at $0.15 per copy or copy cards to operate the machine may be purchased from the librarian.

Catalog

There is a union catalog for the libraries of the 10^th Circuit. There is a computer terminal with the catalog located in the treatise area on top of the old card catalog. Please ask a library staff member for assistance.