Kimberlie Derfler

The Utah County Attorney’s Office would like to nominate KIMBERLIE DERFLER for Employee of the Month! Here’s what folks in the office had to say about Kimberlie:

Doug Smith, Deputy Co. Attorney: Kimberlie has been outstanding in her knowledge and assistance with the new Filevine, I believe she would represent our office well as employee of the month. Kimberlie exudes confidence in the office workers who have requested her help in learning Filevine.

Kayla Runolfson, Legal Assistant: Kimberlie has been the project lead to get our office situated and trained on our new software system which she has handled with grace and efficiency. She trains us in a respectful manner and she is easy to approach with any questions I have regarding the new system and quick to reply to my messages. She is always nice and has a good attitude.

Mike Hinckley, Deputy Co. Attorney: Kimberlie has been great at getting our new digital filing system, Filevine, up and running in our office. This has been a gargantuan task, with the sheer volume of case files we deal with in the prosecutor’s side alone, not to mention making this system work for the civil division. She has always been helpful and makes herself available for any questions we might have with the new system. She has been great at troubleshooting for individual attorneys, legal assistants, and paralegals. This has been a process for her of about a year and a half to two years as she has been involved in choosing the new software, negotiating with Filevine, and getting this ready to be used in the office. Not only that, but there are several other prosecutor’s offices in the county that rely on our digital filing system and our licenses so she has had to help them as well. She has taken on this complex take while still staying on top of her regular paralegal workload. Kimberlie has truly gone the extra mile.

Chad Grunander, Criminal Division Chief: Kimberlie Derfler has been a paralegal at the Utah County Attorney’s Office for a number of years and the quality of her work never ceases to amaze. In addition to her excellent work on Filevine, our new case management system, she is a very skilled paralegal. For example, earlier this year she assisted Jared Perkins and Chad Grunander with a cold-case homicide jury trial. It was an exceptionally challenging trial because it was a circumstantial evidence case involving the murder of a victim dating back to 1988. Kimberly worked tirelessly with the attorneys and the Spanish Fork Police Department to make sure the surviving witnesses were located and interviewed in anticipation of trial and that the evidence was presented smoothly and professionally at trial. The physical evidence involved photographs and physical items collected more than thirty years earlier. She also worked with the attorneys to create powerful demonstrative exhibits for the jury. Kimberlie’s help with this case led to the defendant’s murder conviction and some measure of justice for the victim’s family and friends who had waited decades to find our what had happened to their loved one. A successfully resolution to this heinous crime and tragedy would not have been possible without Kimberlie’s exceptional work. She is very deserving of being recognized as Utah County’s employee of the month!

Sandi Johnson, Chief Deputy Co. Attorney: Kimberlie Derfler has gone above and beyond this year both as a paralegal and implementing a new case management system for the Utah County Attorney’s Office. First, Kimberlie Derfler is one of five paralegals that assist the criminal division. Starting in March, the Courts started to hold live hearings again. Kimberlie was the paralegal in a month-long homicide trial, and was the paralegal in trials both before and after that. She has volunteered to cover trials when other paralegals have been sick and has done an outstanding job organizing exhibits, meeting with witnesses, tracking down police reports and other discovery, as well as helping the Courts during trial. In addition to these responsibilities as a paralegal, Kimberlie has also been the main person coordinating the Filevine implementation. Last year, we were notified that our case management software of JustWare would no longer be supported and we would need to find a replacement software. Kimberlie met with various vendors, watched countless tutorials, and discussed the various options with management as we decided which vendor to go with as the replacement. Once we chose Filevine, Kimberlie became the main point of contact, along with Curtis Larson. She spent countless hours meeting with Filevine to develop the program specifically for our office, determining what data needed to be collected, mapping data from JustWare to Filevine, etc. Curtis Larson retired the end of March, and in addition to her paralegal duties, she essentially took on the responsibility for the whole project. She has trained the office and the cities on the new program. She works through the bugs every day that are still ongoing with the implementation. She troubleshoots problems for the entire office. She has written a user manual for the office. In short, she has undertaken this herculean project and is doing a great job, all at the same time she is managing to keep up with her work as a paralegal. For this reason, we are recommending that she be recognized for her work that has gone above and beyond this year.