Utah's court system just landed a national award for its "Online Court Assistance Program," which gives residents free help with uncontested divorces and landlord/tenant disputes. The Utah Administrative Office of the Courts recently was one of three systems recognized with a 2001 Justice Achievement Award from the National Association for Court Management.

The court is designing another program that will help people get the paperwork for protective orders electronically

The new program will be modeled after the simple-to-use "decision tree" of questions employed by the existing online program.


From November 2000 through June 2001 around 1,500 people were using this online service. Some 800 divorce documents ultimately turned up in the court system.

"We'll easily have 10 percent of all the divorces in the state this year (begun online)," said Richard Schwermer, assistant state court administrator. "We've found a real need for low-cost, quality assistance."

"It's nice that it's available for everyone," Becker said.

"It's producing something that is legally sufficient and that will work."