Utah was the 45th territory in the U.S. to gain statehood on January 4th 1896. There are 29 counties and 243 incorporated municipalities carrying out Utah's local government duties. County and city governments elect officials, create department and divisions making up their agencies servicing citizens. Essential county duties include law enforcement, record keeping, tax collections, justice courts, economic development and elections.

Open record laws in Utah give its residents better access to information held by government agencies, departments and divisions. All local and statewide agencies fall under the Open Record Act and do not give individual departments and division the discretion to deny anyone records that are considered public. Any member of the public can make a record request in Utah without having to show a reason. Despite these laws being enacted to promote a transparent government, many request are simply made for personal needs and are not related to oversight of state and local department affairs.

Criminal records background check are available from the Utah Department of Public Safety, Bureau of Criminal Identification. Find out how to obtain a copy of another person's criminal history. See instructions to retain an official B.C.I. report of your own adult and previous juvenile record. The UT D.P.S. lists tips regarding expungement of your criminal history.

Locating official records for personal purposes such as birth or marriage certificates can be directly requested from the Utah Office of Vital Records. The state's health department shows visitors to their site how to order official divorces and death records in addition to births and marriages that have occurred within Utah. Online databases from the state's various department can offer valuable information to uncover previous U.C.C. filings, verify professional licensure, offenders registered in a particular area, most wanted lists and other public safety precautionary data.

The state's judicial system's x-change case look up can supplement your investigation with electronic access to court records. General jurisdiction courts also known as district courts have jurisdiction over misdemeanor and felony criminal cases, civil trials of divorces and other proceedings. Justice courts with jurisdiction of traffic cases, smaller B and C misdemeanors filings and small claims are available using the Courts Information System (CORIS). Other case details that you can obtain include judgments, verdicts, transcripts, jury awards and more online.

The Utah justice courts preside over cases involving torts, contracts up to $5,000, small claims of up to $5,000, misdemeanors, traffic and hold venue to preliminary hearings. Jury trials are available in some case types. Juvenile courts have exclusive jurisdiction to hear cases involving minors.

District courts are the state's trial courts with jurisdiction to hear torts, contracts, real property rights, small claims up to $5,000, has exclusive estate, mental health, miscellaneous civil, and civil appeals jurisdiction, domestic relations, and criminal appeals jurisdiction. Criminal cases in district courts hear felony, and misdemeanors and traffic violations.

Courts of appeal have mandatory jurisdiction in civil, criminal, administrative agency, juvenile, original proceeding cases and jurisdiction in interlocutory decision cases. Utah's highest court is the supreme court, which have mandatory jurisdiction in civil, capital criminal, criminal, administrative agency, juvenile, disciplinary, original proceeding cases and have discretionary jurisdiction in interlocutory decision cases.