HB 364: Governmental Immunity Amendments - Utah

Substitute #2 → Substitute #3 · 4 edits

MODERATE

This bill substitutes a new version of the Governmental Immunity Act amendments that clarifies immunity provisions for outside legal counsel hired by municipalities and adds a coordination clause to ensure consistency with another bill (H.B. 48) regarding wildland urban interface modifications. The changes primarily involve renumbering of definitions and maintaining the same substantive immunity protections while improving clarity on how outside legal counsel is treated under the law.

Scope change

The bill's scope remains focused on governmental immunity but adds a coordination clause to address potential conflicts with H.B. 48, ensuring both bills work together if enacted.

TECHNICAL

Added a coordination clause to clarify how this bill interacts with H.B. 48 regarding wildland urban interface modifications, preventing legal conflicts if both bills pass.

Removed duplicate or redundant formatting and context lines from the previous version, streamlining the bill text for clarity.

DEFINITION

Renumbered definition sections from (7) to (12) to maintain proper sequence after removing the 'Outside legal counsel' definition from its original position and repositioning it.

Added explicit immunity protection for outside legal counsel hired by cities or towns, granting them the same immunity as city-employed attorneys when performing legal work as a governmental function.

Substitute #1 → Substitute #2 · 5 edits

MODERATE

This bill substitutes a new version of HB 364 that expands governmental immunity protections to include outside legal counsel hired by municipalities. The new version also adds 63G-7-201 to the affected code sections and changes the Senate Sponsor from LONG TITLE to Todd Weiler. The substantive policy change extends immunity protections to attorneys who are not employees but are hired to perform legal work for cities or towns.

Scope change

The bill now affects two code sections (63G-7-102 and 63G-7-201) instead of just one, and expands immunity coverage to include outside legal counsel in addition to existing employee protections.

DEFINITION

Added new definition of 'outside legal counsel' as an attorney who is not an employee of a city or town but is hired to perform legal work.

ELIGIBILITY

Extended immunity protections to outside legal counsel performing legal work related to governmental functions, granting them the same immunity as employed attorneys.

REQUIREMENT

Added Section 63G-7-201 to the list of code sections affected by this bill.

TECHNICAL

Changed Senate Sponsor from 'LONG TITLE' to 'Todd Weiler' and updated bill formatting.

Removed the effective date clause that set May 7, 2025 as the implementation date.

Introduced → Substitute #1 · 4 edits

MODERATE

This bill substitutes a new version of HB 364 that clarifies how independent contractors (specifically law firms and attorneys) are treated under Utah's Governmental Immunity Act. The main change is narrowing the scope from all governmental entities to only municipalities, while adding a new section that explicitly states these contractors do not receive employee benefits like insurance or salary. The effective date remains May 7, 2025.

Scope change

The bill's scope was narrowed from applying to all governmental entities to only municipalities regarding independent contractor immunity provisions.

SCOPE

Changed the independent contractor immunity provision to apply only to municipalities instead of all governmental entities.

DEFINITION

Added a new section (63G-7-102.5) clarifying that independent contractors are not entitled to employee benefits like insurance, salary, or workers' compensation.

ELIGIBILITY

Modified the employee definition to specify that independent contractors hired by municipalities for legal work are treated as employees for immunity purposes only.

TECHNICAL

Removed the Senate Sponsor line and other formatting elements from the original version.

Governmental Immunity Amendments

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