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Read. Follow. Verify.Utah HB 91 requires courts to presume incarcerated defendants are indigent for 10-day terms
Last action · March 6, 2026: House/ filedSponsor: Grant Miller
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What This Bill Proposed
This bill addresses a court's determination of indigency.
Incarcerated defendants facing a holding period of 10 or more consecutive days gain a legal presumption of financial need for public defense services without needing to independently prove insufficiency of income under standard poverty guidelines.
- Grant Amjad Miller serves as a member of the Utah Legislature and sponsored HB 91 during the 2026 General Session. context
- Utah's indigent defense system governs how courts evaluate whether criminal defendants qualify for state-provided legal representation based on income, assets, and other financial hardships. context
Who It Would Have Affected
Groups the bill's text would have affected, as described in the record. Being affected is not a position for or against it.
incarcerated individuals
Incarcerated individuals facing holding periods of 10 or more consecutive days receive a legal presumption of indigency for court-appointed counsel.
indigent defense service providers
Indigent defense service providers experience changes in the criteria and speed by which courts determine client eligibility for representation.
courts
Courts are required to apply a mandatory presumption of indigency based on incarceration length rather than performing full financial evaluations under specific conditions.
Key Facts
You don't have to trust us. Each fact below is taken straight from the official document - click any one to see the exact passage, highlighted in the original.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a court still deny indigency if someone intentionally gave away their property?
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News Coverage
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Votes, people, money & the original sourceWhere This Stands
This bill did not become law - Died at adjournment · in House committee.
Procedural history
14 actions- Mar 6, 2026HouseHouse/ filed
- Mar 6, 2026HouseHouse/ strike enacting clause
- Mar 5, 2026HouseHouse/ comm rpt/ sent to Rules
- Mar 3, 2026HouseHouse Comm - Recommends Returned to Rules
- Jan 20, 2026HouseHouse/ received fiscal note from Fiscal Analyst
- Jan 20, 2026ReleasedLFA/ fiscal note publicly available for HB0091
Show 8 earlier actions
- Jan 20, 2026HouseCommitteeHouse/ to standing committee
- Jan 20, 2026HouseIntroducedHouse/ 1st reading (Introduced)
- Jan 16, 2026Version SponsorLFA/ fiscal note sent to sponsor for HB0091
- Jan 14, 2026HouseHouse/ received bill from Legislative Research
- Dec 29, 2025Legislative Fiscal AgencyLFA/ bill sent to agencies for fiscal input for HB0091
- Dec 29, 2025Legislative Fiscal AnalystLFA/ bill assigned to staff for fiscal analysis for HB0091
- Dec 29, 2025Legislative Research and General CounselNumbered Bill Publicly Distributed
- Dec 29, 2025Legislative Research and General CounselBill Numbered but not Distributed
Version history
Only one version on file - nothing to compare yet. As later stages (committee substitute, engrossed, enrolled) are captured, the redline appears here.
View official text →Lobbying Activity
No state lobbying filings in our records match this bill. Federal lobbying reports (LDA) cover Congress, so they are not listed on state bills.
Full breakdown
Who this bill affects and the strongest case for and against it, written only from the bill’s own text.
Sponsors
Discoveries
Patterns POLISCOPE noticed across the record. These are observations to investigate, not conclusions.
Introduction of Incarceration-Length Indigency Threshold
The bill creates a bright-line 10-day consecutive incarceration rule to automatically trigger an indigency presumption for court-appointed counsel.
Connected Entities
Sources
le.utah.gov
Analysis Score
0–100- Significance20Lowered because this bill did not pass (its text scored 45)
- Controversy10Intensity of disagreement among stakeholders
- Entertainment5Compellingness for a non-policy-wonk reader
- Buzz15Current news / social attention level
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