Got a traffic ticket in Salt Lake County? Soon you may have to resolve it at a different courthouse.
At the request of Salt Lake County officials, Senate Majority Leader Kirk Cullimore, R-Cottonwood Heights, sponsored a resolution that would dissolve the county justice court next year. The court handles lower-level misdemeanors, small claims and infractions like traffic tickets charged within Utah’s most populous county.
Cities have their own justice courts as well, so the need for the countywide version has “already been dwindling,” Cullimore said during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the measure.
And last year, HB330 created a path for cities to absorb the remaining unincorporated areas of Salt Lake County over a two-year span, so only about 1,000 residents wouldn’t be included within a specific municipal court jurisdiction, Cullimore added.
The 3rd District Court would take over the small number of cases that don’t fall under a municipal justice court’s jurisdiction, according to the resolution.
“This is a municipal service,” Salt Lake County Council member Laurie Stringham said during a Tuesday County Council meeting. “And since we have almost no municipal people left in the county, thanks to the Legislature, we should not be required to actually have municipal service of a justice court.”
Closing the court would save Salt Lake County about $867,600 starting in 2027, according to the resolution. That same year, the state would take on about $1.1 million in costs to absorb the remaining cases that didn’t fall into a municipal justice court’s jurisdiction.
That $1.1 million estimate is based on the current caseload at the county justice court, Cullimore said. To give cities more time to take on additional cases, and, in turn, cut down on the expense of moving cases to the District Court, Cullimore said he intends to kick back the initial June 2026 deadline to dissolve the court by one full year.
Without the Salt Lake County Justice Court, assistant state court administrator Michael Drexel said he is concerned there’d be no “safety net” to prevent municipalities from closing their own courts. In such an instance, cases at those dissolved courts would also have to be absorbed by the 3rd District Court — creating a state budget issue, he added.
Cache County is currently the only county in Utah without its own justice court, Drexel said, so every time a court there closes, its cases become the 3rd District Court’s burden.
“Closing Salt Lake County Justice Court sets the stage for Salt Lake County to be like Cache County, but on a much larger scale,” Drexel said. “... There’s that underlying structural issue that may need some attention from the Legislature longer-term so that it’s effectively managed.”
Cullimore said in an email that Salt Lake County plans to explore agreements with other municipal justice courts to handle any leftover cases from the county’s remaining unincorporated areas, so the impact on the 3rd District Court would be “minimal.”
“This resolution reflects a practical and fiscally responsible decision from Salt Lake County leadership,” Cullimore said. “Maintaining a county justice court that no longer serves a significant function would be an unnecessary use of resources, and the county is proactively ensuring that any necessary adjustments are made before the transition occurs.”
The resolution moved out of committee with a favorable recommendation and is set to be heard by the Senate.
