Opinion ID: 2595521
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: indigency

Text: ¶ 33 Burns argues that the trial court erred in concluding that she was not considered indigent if her family retained an attorney. At the time of the hearing, in April 1992, the determination of indigency was left entirely to the discretion of the trial court in Utah. Since that time, however, the Utah Legislature has defined the standards upon which to determine indigency. See Utah Code Ann. § 77-32-202 (Supp.1999) (originally enacted as Counsel for Indigent Defendants, ch. 307, § 1, 1997 Utah Laws 1181, 1181). However, in the instant case, the trial court never found whether Burns was indigent. While it is true the court made a comment to the effect that since Burns's attorney was not pro bono it would indicate that Burns may not be indigent, the court did not base its decision to deny access to expert witness funding on a decision of whether Burns was indigent. Instead, the court erroneously insisted on packaging indigent assistance with LDA representation and therefore never provided Burns with a hearing on indigence.