Your state’s pack. New issues arrive periodically on Mondays. Bookmark it. I built this for the Utah T&E solo who knows the UPC (Title 75) cold but still loses an afternoon a week hunting the current homestead number, the New Choices Waiver waiver posture, whether the latest EAOC opinion changes how you scope an engagement, or whether a recent Utah Court of Appeals decision just moved the law on capacity, undue influence, or a trustee’s duties. What’s below is what mattered in Utah lately — the week’s developments and the recent rulings from the bench.
For licensed attorneys. This pack is general legal information and professional commentary for practicing attorneys — it is not legal advice, does not apply to any specific matter, and creates no attorney-client relationship. Verify every authority against the cited primary source before relying on it with a client. Published by Mike Moss, a Utah-admitted attorney, as an AI-enablement information product; it is not an offer of legal services and is not a representation that the author is admitted to practice in your jurisdiction.
Three developments from the last seven days that I think actually matter to a Utah T&E solo. Each one has a read that lands on your practice specifically — and each one comes with the citation so you can verify the detail yourself before you use it with a client.
Per the DHHS New Choices Waiver fact sheet, the program "serves a limited number of individuals" and "the majority of available waiver slots are reserved for people residing in nursing facilities, hospitals, or other medical facilities." Applicants may apply "until the waiver participant cap is met." This is the structural posture, not a weekly event — and it governs how you order a Medicaid plan around NCW eligibility.
For a Utah solo, the planning implication is timing and setting, not just eligibility math. A client already at home, already on another Utah waiver, or not yet institutionalized is competing for the minority share of slots against a prioritized queue. If a client's plan is "wait until they need it," the slot may not be there the week they need it. The practical posture is scenario-planning two paths — NCW availability and a fallback without it — before the facility decision forces your hand.
Utah DHHS New Choices Waiver Fact Sheet · medicaid.utah.gov/ltc-2/nc/
This slot holds the week’s second Utah-specific development — a bill with a verifiable committee vote on the legislature’s site, a newly-issued ethics opinion, a state-bar section notice, or a Medicaid bulletin. The orchestrator populates it from primary sources, and the citation below carries the source URL so the reader can verify before using it with a client.
[Per-state why-it-matters paragraph lands here once the headline item is populated.]
[Primary-source citation with URL]
Under Utah Code § 78B-5-503(6), the Office of the State Auditor — not the Judicial Council, not DHHS — computes the homestead adjustment using the CPI formula in the statute and publishes the new figures no later than January 1 of the applicable calendar year. The 2026 figures took effect January 1. The 2025 amount on bar-association forms and most CLE slide decks circulating in the first quarter is stale.
Two places this bites immediately: creditor-exemption schedules filed in Utah bankruptcy cases, and the homestead-allowance math in § 75-2-402 family-protection claims. If your forms library was refreshed before the adjustment, every pleading out of it this year is citing last year's number. The fix is fifteen minutes in the template — but only if someone noticed.
Utah Code § 78B-5-503(6) · Office of the State Auditor · auditor.utah.gov · effective Jan 1, 2026
Decisions from the courts that bind a Utah practitioner — the Utah Supreme Court and the Utah Court of Appeals, the U.S. District Court for Utah, and the Tenth Circuit — read for what actually changes how you draft, advise, and plan. Trusts and estates broadly, not Medicaid alone: wills and capacity, undue influence, fiduciary duty, trust construction, and estate recovery. One read, the holding, and the official cite.
Across the Utah Supreme Court and the Utah Court of Appeals, the U.S. District Court for Utah, and the Tenth Circuit, no qualifying trusts-and-estates or estate-recovery decision has been verified in the trailing window this period. Per the lane’s no-invent rule, this row says so plainly rather than inflating a holding. The lane reads each opinion before it lands here, and reads-and-discards Medicaid program/provider litigation as not T&E.
Nothing to re-paper from the bench this period; controlling authority is unchanged.
Awaiting verified weekly signal — CourtListener used for discovery only, never cited as authority.
This slot holds the next significant trusts-and-estates or estate-recovery decision from Utah’s appellate courts or the federal courts covering Utah. The lane reads each opinion before it lands here, and reads-and-discards Medicaid program/provider litigation as not T&E. When the trailing window has no new ruling, this row says so plainly rather than inventing one.
[Per-state “what this means today” paragraph lands here once a ruling is populated — otherwise: nothing to re-paper from the bench this period; controlling authority unchanged.]
[Official reporter · court · date — never courtlistener.com]
This week in Utah for the T&E solo with Aging / New Choices clients: the Utah state bar and Utah Medicaid developments that actually moved your practice this period — each one primary-source verified.
Bar and Medicaid changes land on different schedules and aren’t indexed by practice focus. Every item here was checked against its primary source, with the link, so you can verify before relying on it.