Tag: Judiciary
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‘Running on empty tanks’: Chief justice addresses legislature with plea for more judges
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Chief Justice Monica M. Márquez delivered her plea for more judges to the entire legislature on Friday, saying workloads are more demanding and well-meaning legislative changes have contributed to the burdens on the bench. “We cannot ask our judges, day in and day out, to make consequential decisions impacting people’s lives when they are running on…
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Bringing ‘yes, and’ to the courtroom: Retired judge talks about her other life as an improv actor
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The day Julie Field was sworn in as a trial judge in Larimer County, she began an improvisational comedy class. “I knew I would need something outside of the court in my life that was creative and spontaneous and fun,” she recalled. Field, who retired in 2021 as a judge on the Eighth Judicial District…
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More than a half dozen Colorado judges still haven’t filed financial disclosure
More than a half dozen Colorado judges are still delinquent in updating missing personal financial disclosure statements with state officials, despite a Denver Gazette investigation that flagged them about the problem two weeks ago. There were 15 judges delinquent as of Thursday — one of them on the Appellate Court bench — but the number more than halved…
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A few glitches in the financial disclosures by Colorado’s Supreme Court justices
The Denver Gazette’s analysis comes on the heels of demands for reform to financial disclosures made by the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court
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Committee that cleared former Chief Justice Coats need not have followed rule requiring it to step aside: Legal ethics expert
The Colorado Supreme Court discipline committee that dismissed an inquiry into former Chief Justice Nathan “Ben” Coats’ professional conduct need not have recused itself from that decision even though nearly all the members of the panel were appointed by him, according to a legal ethics expert. What’s more, a rule that specifically requires members of…
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Chief justice tells legislature about accomplishments, planned reforms to judiciary
Chief Justice Brian D. Boatright on Friday told the legislature the state’s judicial branch is making progress on diversity and workplace culture, while warning lawmakers about the need to address low compensation and problematic levels of turnover. Boatright also threw his endorsement behind two new proposals that would reform the process for disciplining judges, including an amendment…
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Proposed sweeping changes to judicial discipline process would need public approval
Colorado judges who face formal charges of misconduct would face a public trial rather than a secret one, which has been the norm for decades, according to a number of sweeping preliminary recommendations made Wednesday by an interim legislative committee reviewing changes to judicial discipline. Other changes recommended by the committee of eight legislators include…
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State court administrator admits he ‘missed’ discipline advisory and allowed ‘hairy chest’ jurist into senior judge program
Colorado State Court Administrator Steven Vasconcellos on Tuesday said he overlooked the discipline record of a retiring district court judge when he approved the jurist’s application for the senior judge program in 2018, then recently admonished the state’s judicial discipline commission for not telling the Judicial Branch about it. That judge — former Adams County District…
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Disciplinary information rarely considered in decisions on judge retention
Colorado’s system of judicial discipline is so secret that the state’s nearly two dozen performance review commissions that evaluate judges have rarely known for sure whether a jurist they recommended voters keep on the bench had a record of misconduct or not. That shortfall is a critical flaw in the state’s judicial retention process that…
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Discipline commission says state court administrator falsely accused it of withholding information
Colorado’s state court administrator – the highest civilian position in the Judicial Department – last year falsely claimed judicial discipline officials failed to reveal they had admonished a district court judge of misbehavior before the judge was admitted to a senior judge program, the state’s discipline commission said in a letter filed Monday with legislators.…