Davis County Justice Court. What to expect.
This is the court that catches Davis County’s gaps. Several cities in the county — Kaysville and Farmington among them — run no justice court of their own, so their cases are heard here at the Farmington complex.
Davis County Justice Court.
Address, phone, and what this court actually handles.
Public hours: Office Mon–Fri 8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.; phones answered 9:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m.
Eight things about this court.
Not general advice — specifics that matter about this courtroom.
Two different courts, one address
The Second District Court also sits at 800 West State Street. They are separate courts with separate calendars, and clients confuse them constantly. Read the court name on your citation, not the street address.
Kaysville and Farmington have no court of their own
People lose days looking for a Kaysville Justice Court or a Farmington Justice Court. Neither exists. See Kaysville and Farmington.
Phones are answered on a shorter window than the office
Nine to three, even though the office runs eight to five. Worth knowing before you spend a morning redialing.
Booking is at the same complex
The Davis County Correctional Facility is also at 800 West State Street.
A conviction here can be appealed for a brand-new trial
Utah justice courts are not courts of record. A conviction in the Davis County Justice Court can be appealed to the Second District Court in Farmington for a trial de novo — a new trial from the beginning in front of a district judge. The filing deadline runs from sentencing and is short. Compare Layton, where cases are tried in a district court and no second trial exists.
You can have a jury, but you have to ask for one
A class B misdemeanor DUI is a jury-eligible offense in Utah, tried to four jurors who must agree unanimously. In justice court the jury must be requested in writing by a deadline before trial; it is not automatic. Whether a jury or the judge is the better audience for a particular case depends on the officer, the video, and the breath evidence.
The Davis County Attorney’s Office prosecutes here
Cases in the county justice court are handled by the Davis County Attorney’s Office, the same office that files the county’s felonies next door. That matters for negotiation: the prosecutors who decide whether an impaired-driving reduction is on the table are the same ones who see the county’s felony DUI dockets.
Interpreters are provided — request one in advance
Utah courts provide interpreters at no cost in criminal cases, but the request should be made before the hearing, not at the podium. Nuestro personal contesta las 24 horas and can make the request with the clerk. See our Spanish-language pages.
If you have a date on this calendar.
The court will not advise you and the prosecutor is not your lawyer. Two things are worth doing before your first appearance.
Do not plead at arraignment because it is quick
A guilty plea at arraignment ends the case and every option in it. Utah law also sharply limits pleas in abeyance for DUI, so the shortcut people expect usually is not available. See what a guilty plea actually costs.
Deal with the license separately and immediately
The criminal case and the Driver License Division hearing are two proceedings in two systems. The DLD deadline is ten calendar days from arrest and this court has no power over it.
How a DUI case moves through this court.
Most Davis County Justice Court DUI cases follow the same five steps. Knowing the sequence makes the first hearing far less intimidating.
Arraignment
The charge is read and a plea is entered. The right answer on day one is almost always “not guilty,” which preserves every option. See what happens at a Utah DUI arraignment.
Discovery and the pretrial conference
The prosecutor turns over the police report, body-camera and dash-camera video, the breath or blood results, and the instrument records. The pretrial conference is where the first real negotiation happens — and where a documented weakness in the evidence has its first effect.
Motions
If the stop, the arrest, or the chemical test has a legal problem, it is raised by written motion and argued at a hearing. A granted suppression motion usually ends the case.
Trial
To the judge or to a four-person jury. Most cases do not reach this step, but the cases that resolve well before trial are the ones that were prepared as if they would.
Sentencing — and the separate license track
Utah DUI sentencing is set largely by statute. Throughout all of this, the Driver License Division hearing is a separate proceeding with its own ten-day deadline that this court does not control.