Verbatim Copies of Court Hearings

Utah's district, juvenile and appellate courts are courts of record. Hearings are recorded either by court reporters or electronically. Copies of hearings recorded electronically are available from each court. See our page on Requesting Audio of a Court Proceeding. A nominal fee is charged for each copy. Information on fees can be found at Rule 4-202.08. Fees for records, information, and services. The format in which a hearing is recorded depends on the recording equipment in the courtroom.

Digitally Recorded Hearings

In 2001, Utah's district and juvenile courts began digitally storing and distributing the courts' verbatim record. With this ongoing change from analog (cassette or videotape) to digital recording (CD), courts can now offer higher quality of recordings and more options to users. Contact your local court to determine how the record is kept in each courtroom.

Two types of compact discs (CDs) of court proceedings are available: Data CDs for computers and for CD players.

Data CDs

If you are a regular user of recorded court proceedings or if you transcribe audio, data CDs are a good choice for you. Data CDs are designed for use with a computer. They cannot be played on a regular CD player. Audio only Data CDs require For The Record Gold's FTR Player Plus™, while video CDs require TheRecord Player™, to be installed on the computer for playback. Both are free downloads. You will, of course, also need speakers or headphones to listen to the audio playback.

Audio CDs

If you don't have a computer or if you only need to listen to a single, short hearing, audio from a court hearing can be recorded to an audio CD which can be played in any CD player. Only 80 minutes of audio can be recorded onto a single audio CD. This type of CD can be made for any hearing held in a digital audio or video courtroom upon request.