The Legal Affairs Program consists of the following offices:
The Office of Legal Affairs includes Attorney General costs for the department. Currently there are two full time attorneys dedicated to department issues whose personnel costs are budgeted in the Office of the Attorney General and billed to DHS.
Administrative Hearings conducts hearings required by state and federal law where persons may appeal decisions of administrative agencies in the department. Among the programs served are child abuse or neglect findings, child support enforcement, foster parent due process and licensing, and disciplinary proceedings by the Division of Juvenile Justice Services.
The Office of Public Guardian was created by the 1999 Legislature (UCA 62A-14). It provides guardianship and conservator services to legally incapacitated adults who have no willing and responsible family or friends to serve as guardians or conservators. The primary tasks of the office are to prepare documentation, evaluate, and assist the court process in establishing these functions for its clients. Office staff act as case managers by organizing residential accommodations, overseeing health care needs, and managing the finances and real personal property of wards. As resources are limited, services are focused on incapacitated adults who are in life-threatening situations and adults who are being abused, neglected, or exploited. The office is also responsible to educate the public of its role and in general about guardians and conservators.
Additional information regarding the Utah Guardian and Conservator program can be found on its official website found at: Utah Guardian and Conservator program
During the 2015 General Session, the Legislature appropriated for Fiscal Year 2016, $1,445,200 from all sources for Legal Affairs. This is a 2.4 percent reduction from Fiscal Year 2015 revised estimated amounts from all sources. The total includes $890,900 from the General/Education Funds, a reduction of 2.1 percent from revised Fiscal Year 2015 estimates.
In addition to statewide compensation and internal service fund cost increases, the following appropriation adjustments were made during the 2015 General Session:
For the most recent completed fiscal year, the following information represents the purposes for which the money was used:
The Office of Public Guardian is required to provide services statewide. With regard to the distribution of funds for guardian services, no funds are distributed. Instead guardians and guardian services are funded as requested throughout the state. Services are based on request.
Regarding the negative trend greater than 5% of its Administrative Hearings Held performance measure, the agency states, "Administrative Hearings Held decreased for FY2014, but the number of requests did not decrease materially (8 less than FY13), therefore the office workload did not decrease substantially. The decrease in hearings is attributable to requests being unsubstantiated or retracted, and Administrative Hearings being found to have no jurisdiction in some cases. The two performance measures work together."
COBI contains unaudited data as presented to the Legislature by state agencies at the time of publication. For audited financial data see the State of Utah's Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports.