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SALT LAKE CITY — Seeking a protective order against an abusive ex. How to deal with a landlord who won't fix a broken heater in the dead of winter. Getting wrongly fired from a job.
Well-off, white Utahns tend to have an easier time navigating those sorts of legal challenges. But it's a different story for anyone stretching to make ends meet and those skeptical of a criminal justice system that has long incarcerated minorities at disproportionate rates.
Utah's court system is rolling out new initiatives to recalibrate the scales of justice, aiming to root out bias and inform as many people as possible about the types of free legal help available — ahead of the moment they speak to a judge.
"We recognize that a lot of people, especially people from diverse and historically marginalized communities, do not have the best impression of the courts, and that is completely valid," said Valeria Jimenez, public outreach coordinator for the new Office of Fairness and Accountability in the state courts system. "We want to address those perceptions and really build that trust, but we don't want to do it in a way where we're going in and telling them what to do."
The first step is listening, Jimenez said, as she meets with organizations serving Utah's Hispanic, Pacific Islander, LGBT and other communities, and fields questions at events hosted those groups.
For Jimenez, her desire to help has a personal element. Her parents are originally from Chihuahua and Jalisco, Mexico, and ultimately settled in Heber City, and her father speaks only Spanish, she said.
"If he found himself in a place where he needed a lawyer, he wouldn't know where to start," Jimenez said. "I definitely want to be that person in the community where I can really help everyone and kind of eliminate those cultural and language barriers."
The courts are also digging into data to help address those roadblocks.
Jonathan Puente, director of the office that started up in January, is working with statistics experts at the University of Utah, as well as police, prosecutors, defense attorneys and others to examine how those of different ethnic and racial backgrounds fare in the courts system and the reasons behind any trends.
Their findings will inform recommendations for policy changes, he said, such as judges potentially appointing defense attorneys earlier in the courts process for those unable to afford counsel on their own.
"We don't know what we're going to find," said Puente, who also is tasked with taking a hard look at the court's own hiring practices, rules and culture. "This is the first time we're intentionally going after the disparity."
Utah's jails and prison system maintain detailed data, Puente noted, but not everyone ends up behind bars. Some people enter into diversion agreements wherein charges are dropped, reduced or never filed in the first place, while others serve probation and fork over fines.
The Utah Judicial Council created a task force in 1996 to evaluate racial bias in the state's legal system, and the group crafted more than 75 proposals for changes.
But like copies of its report, the recommendations — including better tracking of trends, the creation of an office focused on fairness, and steps to build trust with communities of color — largely collected dust.
In response to last year's reckoning on racial justice spurred by the killing of George Floyd, the Utah Supreme Court returned to the 20-year-old recommendations with the Utah Judicial Council, the court system's policymaking arm.
"The goal is a fair process that produces a just result," Utah Supreme Court Chief Justice Matthew Durrant said in announcing the new office last year. "The goal cannot be achieved in a system tainted by racism or any other form of bias."
Part of the bigger goal is simply trying to inform as many people as possible about the resources that already exist. They include a state law library where a person can look up cases and file documents online, plus a self-help center where a person can track down forms and learn about agencies providing legal help at no cost, in English and Spanish.
"We have to remain neutral," Puente said. "We just want to make sure that folks that really are in need of them know about them."
For some community leaders in Utah, the initiatives are causing déjà vu. The task force at work more than two decades ago held town hall-style meetings and other events statewide, seeking to hear about the experiences of those treated unfairly.
"Folks would say, 'Hey, didn't you guys do this in the '90s?'" Puente said. "They're like, 'We're still talking about some of the same things 20 years later?'"
"This is different this time around," Puente added. "We're trying to regain that trust."
That will take time. Building better relationships requires community requires a genuine continuous effort, said Susi Feltch-Malohifo'ou, executive director of the nonprofit Pacific Island Knowledge 2 Action Resources.
Feltch-Malohifo'ou is focused on the sort of changes, if any, the state will eventually make based on the research that's getting underway.
In the past, she said, organizations have simply sent out a flyer instead of meeting with community members regularly and fostering a relationship of trust.
"It's not enough," Feltch-Malohifo'ou said. "Most minoritized communities communicate heart to heart, and mainstream communicates head to head."
Still, she's optimistic.
"We have to start somewhere," Feltch-Malohifo'ou said. "I believe in change and want to be part of positive change."
