What is a warrant for arrest?

A warrant is something that the judge signs in order to allow a police officer to arrest you and hold you in jail until you appear in court. A warrant in Utah can be issued for various monetary amounts and is dependent on how serious the charge is.

How do I know if there is a warrant for my arrest?

If you suspect that you may have a warrant for your arrests, you should contact an attorney as soon as you can. An attorney can look up the warrant and can tell you what it is for. 

Can I handle a warrant myself?

Generally, when you contact an attorney for a consultation, they can tell you whether or not you can handle the warrant yourself. If it is something minor, like a traffic ticket, you may be able to contact the court to set a date to see the judge to get it taken care of. 

If your case is more serious, it is generally recommended that you hire an attorney to help you get the warrant taken care of. An attorney can help you to get the warrant recalled and may be able to arrange a time to appear in court to take care of the warrant. 

Can I travel when I have a warrant out for my arrest?

Technically, yes. However, it is generally not advisable to take any unnecessary risks by traveling by air. Additionally, you should drive very carefully in order to avoid traffic tickets while the warrant is active. 

What is an “active warrant”?

An active warrant is a warrant that has been issued by the judge. A warrant will remain active until the subject of the warrant is arrested and booked into jail or a judge recalls it.

To read more about Utah’s warrants, click here.

To find more advice on what to do about a possible warrant for your arrest, click here.

Intermountain Legal offers legal representation for those who have been accused of sex crimes. Our attorneys understand the sensitive nature of these types of cases and possess the discretionary skills needed to handle them effectively. Intermountain Legal’s sex crimes attorneys handle both violent and non-violent sex crimes including:

• Rape
• Statutory rape
• Sexual battery
• Sexual abuse of a child
• Bigamy
• Incest
• Child pornography
• Soliciting a minor
• Lewd conduct
• Voyeurism
• Internet Sex Crimes
• Juvenile sex offenses

Sentencing for Sex Crimes and Sex Offender Registration

Utah uses something called an “intermediate sentencing system” meaning that a judge and the Board of Pardons and Parole has some discretion in determining a defendant’s release date and sentencing requirements. The caveat is that some sex crimes carry mandatory sentencing requirements in which a defendant who is convicted of a certain crime, such as sexual assault, is required to spend a specific amount of time in prison.

Hiring a defense attorney that specializes in defending those who have been charged with sex crimes is generally worth the time and effort since defendants who are convicted generally continue to feel the effects of of conviction long after the case is over.

Call or text Intermountain Legal at 801-990-4200 for a free consultation.

What is a protective order?

A protective order can help stop abuse by prohibiting the alleged abuser from contacting the victim. Having a protective order in place can make it a crime for the abuser to contact you or your family. 

The order may also prohibit the abuser from obtaining access to weapons or essential property like vehicles. Protective orders can protect those who may be at risk for domestic violence and help victims preserve some financial security. 

How to get a protective order

Protective orders exist and are available to those over the age of 16 who were victims of abuse or who fear abuse at the hands of the following:

• relative, 
• cohabitant, 
• partner, 
• spouse or 
• Some other person with whom they have a relationship with. 

An attorney an Intermountain Legal can help you obtain a protective order. Read more about them here.

Reasons to get a protective order

Oftentimes, a protective order is sought out because of violence or physical abuse. However, a protective order may be issued for other reasons:

• Stalking 
• Threats
• Other menacing conduct

Read the Utah Code about protective orders here.

Child Protection order

An adult can obtain a protective order on behalf of a minor child. This is called a “Child Protective Order”.

Violation of a protective order

A violation of a protective order occurs when there is probable cause that an order was violated. Police officers will make an arrest and a restrained person who violates the order may immediately be taken to jail. A violation of a protective order is typically charged as a Class A misdemeanor with a penalty of up to one year in jail and a fine of $2500. If you need help defending yourself against an order violation, read more here. 

What’s the difference between a restraining order and a protective-order?

You may obtain a restraining order to keep someone from doing something nefarious. A restraining order can help make sure that the spouse you’re trying to get divorced from doesn’t damage property, cancel utility bills or insurance policies that both of your names are on. 

A protective order can be issued to you in abusive situations, possibly where you have been the victim of domestic violence. A protective order’s goal is to keep the abuser away from the victim with provisions in place that punish the abuser if they violate it. 

Have questions?

If you have questions about how to get a protective order or how to get help defending one, call or text Intermountain Legal at 801-990-4200 to schedule a consultation.

A common question in beginning divorce proceedings is this: “How do I pick a good divorce lawyer?”

While a “good” divorce lawyer is subjective and will be different for everyone, there are a few questions that you can ask yourself in order to find the right divorce attorney for you.

The first question you should ask yourself is: “Should I be looking for divorce lawyers near me?”

The answer to this question might seem obvious, but there are a couple of caveats. You may not need your divorce attorney to have an office that is extremely close to where you work or live. Ideally, the lawyer you choose will have an office within driving distance of you. However, hiring an attorney that’s really close to where you live could be of detriment to you if you live far away from where your divorce case will actually be heard.

For example, if you live in City A, but your divorce case will be heard at the courthouse in City B and City B is 4 hours away, you may want to consider hiring an attorney in City B so that you won’t be billed for unnecessary travel costs.  Alternatively, if you hire an attorney whose office is far away from where your case will be heard, you may incur additional costs because your attorney will need to travel to you for the hearings.

A question that men might ask is, “should I be looking at divorce lawyers for men?”

Generally, you don’t need to look for attorneys that are gender specific, unless you have a preference. Whatever attorney you hire will do the best job they can in providing you with the desired outcome of your case.

Thirdly, you may have heard of a term called “collaborative divorce”.

If you’re wondering if you should hire a collaborative lawyer, it helps to know that a “collaborative divorce” is when both spouses hire their own attorneys and agree to work out the terms of their divorce without taking their issues to court. Essentially, both parties agree to work together to resolve the issues that come up in the divorce process.

Ultimately, you should do your research and hire an attorney that you feel comfortable in working with. For additional questions, you can review our common questions webpage here.

Call or text Intermountain Legal for a $75 family law consultation at 801-990-4200.

A Plea in Abeyance (or PIA) is an agreement between the defendant and the prosecutor in a criminal case. It involves the defendant and prosecutor agreeing to specific terms that the defendant will complete in order to prevent the charges from going on their criminal record.

Once, the defendant and prosecutor have come up with an agreement, the judge holds the agreement in place until all the agreed upon terms are completed.

Typical PIA terms may include:

A Plea in Abeyance’s terms is usually a combination of the two or three terms listed above. However, it is rarely just one of the terms.

The pleas for any given charge will also vary person-to-person and county-to-county. An  PIA agreement for  someone in one county may differ from the agreement given to someone in another county. However, many PIAs are held for at least 6 to 12 months.

Is a PIA a conviction?

No. A PIA does not go on your record like a flat-out guilty plea does. It allows the judge to dismiss your charges once you’ve completed your end of the agreement.

Getting a Plea in Abeyance is similar to getting a speeding ticket and then going to traffic school in order to keep the ticket from going on your driving record.

Can I expunge a PIA?

Yes. Read our information about expungements here.

Click here, to read the official definition of a Plea in Abeyance in Utah.

This kind of plea deal is one of the most ideal outcomes other than a case dismissal. Hiring an attorney is the best way to go if you want to get a deal like a Plea in Abeyance.

Call us today (801) 990-4200

Additionally, in collaboration with Utah Patients Coalition, we have created a brief legal analysis and letter you can download and take to your medical provider.

Our Utah medical marijuana/cannabis resources (PDFs available):

• – Tips, FAQs & Patient Checklist
• – Legal Analysis & Letter for Your Doctor

Related: Utah medical marijuana news articles featuring Intermountain Legal attorney(s):

• – “Utah medical marijuana patients running into trouble with police, prosecutors under the law” (KSL)
• – “Man arrested with cannabis in his car, but not charged, could be an indicator of how Utah’s medical marijuana law will be treated”  (Fox 13 Now)
• – “This cannabis patient is believed to be the first in Utah to face drug charges since the new state law was enacted” (Salt Lake Tribune)

UPR wrote, “A new scholarship is being offered to students at Utah universities through a law-firm in Salt Lake. What makes this scholarship unique? You have to be accused of or found guilty of a crime to qualify…. ‘I can’t think of any other scholarship where a qualification is that you’ve been accused of a crime,’ said Steve Burton, a criminal defense attorney and an owner at Intermountain Legal…. Burton said Intermountain Legal started the $1,500 scholarship, titled “Casualties of Justice,” to help the new victims the justice system might create – the actual perpetrators of the crime…”  Read full article here.

A New Victim

It is human nature to want to bring justice to victims. But when the criminal justice system gets it wrong, the opposite happens. The law creates a new victim, the innocent person who was falsely accused or convicted, or even a guilty person who is punished too severely.  Sometimes the system also re-victimizes the original victims by pursuing cases that victims want dropped, or by using their statements without their consent.  The recent Supreme Court confirmation hearings remind us that people’s judgements are influenced as much by personal beliefs as they are by evidence.  This is exactly why it is so important to uphold the presumption of innocence when people are accused of crimes and are facing a loss of their freedom.

How Can We Help

Intermountain Legal has represented both criminal defendants and victims of crime and has seen how the system often falls short or goes too far, unintentionally creating more harm than good.  Because of this, our firm has created the “Casualties of Justice” scholarship to benefit those who have been harmed by the criminal justice system itself.  Intermountain Legal will award $1,500 to someone who has been accused of, arrested for, or convicted of a crime and suffered unjust consequences because of a failure of the system or because of an unfair law. Students who have had a close family member in the same situation also qualify.

How to Apply

To be considered for the scholarship, any student currently enrolled or accepted to any State-sponsored or private (not-for-profit) college or university in Utah can submit a short video or essay explaining their or their family member’s negative experience with the criminal justice system and how the system should be improved.  The submission deadline is December 1, 2018.

To apply, visit intermountainlegal.net and click the “Apply Now” button.

Revenge Porn Law

This spring, Utah became one of thirteen states to enact a “Revenge Porn” law.  The law’s official name is the Distribution of Intimate Images Act.  You are breaking this law if you intentionally distribute an intimate image of someone (example: your ex) to a third party knowing that you don’t have the person in the picture’s consent.  And you have to do it with the intention of causing emotional distress or harm (example: revenge).    Incidentally, if the person in the picture is under 18 you have committed a whole different crime. Pro tip: never do this.

Where does the law apply?

Obviously this law applies if you happened to have snapped the explicit pictures without the other person’s knowledge. (And, once again, if this applies to you, you have committed several additional crimes).  But it applies equally if the pictures were taken consensually.  You might think that if someone sends you a picture of their own free will you are then the owner of that picture and free to do with it whatever you want.   Not so.  Noncommercial intimate images come with an expectation of privacy, meaning that the giver has the right to expect that they won’t be misused.   The most commonly cited comparison is that when you give a waiter your credit card to pay for your meal, you don’t authorize him to use it to take his family to Fiji.

What about Freedom of Speech?

Don’t think you can hide behind the First Amendment either.  Unlike regular pornography, there is no freedom of speech protection for Revenge Porn.  It goes back to the consent issue.  In general, your constitutional rights end when they start infringing on someone else’s.  For example, freedom of religion is protected by the First Amendment, but that doesn’t give you the right to wage jihad.

Critics of the Revenge Porn law think that it doesn’t go far enough because of the requirement that you must intend to cause emotional distress or harm.  It probably can’t touch people who operate revenge porn websites for money.  It also probably wouldn’t apply to the guys who hacked celebrities’ cloud accounts and tweeted their scandalous photos last summer.  These scenarios, however, are probably already covered under the federal laws that regulate the adult film industry.  These laws require that everyone who participates in making porn is consenting and over the age of 18.  Producers of all adult media, including websites, are required to keep files containing the IDs of everyone involved and these files are actually monitored regularly.

Consequences

Distributing an intimate image is a class A misdemeanor.  For a second criminal episode or any others thereafter it is a third degree felony.  A single criminal episode means “all conduct which is closely related in time and is incident to an attempt or an accomplishment of a single criminal objective.” See here.

One text message sent to multiple people qualifies as a single episode.  These are pretty stiff penalties.  A conviction for a class A misdemeanor can get you jail time.  For a third degree felony you could even end up in prison.  There are numerous other consequences including fines and a criminal record that can follow you for the rest of your life.  A Revenge Porn conviction can be especially problematic if you and your ex are in the process of getting divorced.  Judges making custody decisions don’t like criminal convictions generally and tend to see this specific kind of conviction as an indication that you are not going to do well holding you your end of a co-parenting relationship.  And depending on the circumstances, you could also be charged with distribution of pornography and electronic communications harassment.

If you have questions about the Revenge Porn law, you can contact us.  You can read Utah’s Distribution of an Intimate Image law for yourself at this website.