Welcome to Court Crawl, Colorado Politics’ roundup of news from the third branch of government.

The first class of licensed legal paraprofessionals is now at work practicing law to a limited extent in Colorado, plus an eviction defense lawyer talked about his work bringing landlord-tenant issues into the state’s appellate courts.

A new chapter for family law

•  Last month, 59 women and men took the oath of office to become licensed legal paraprofessionals, a new legal occupation in which non-attorneys may practice law to a limited extent in domestic relations cases. The Colorado Supreme Court authorized the framework for the LLP program last year, following in the footsteps of a handful of other states that established the equivalent of a nurse practitioner for law. Colorado Politics attended the swearing-in and an all-day training for the LLPs. Here is an excerpt from the recent cover story on the subject:

As of May 2023, five states had active licensed legal paraprofessional programs, with eight more states in the pipeline. When Colorado’s Supreme Court green-lit the LLP framework last March, the director of the state’s Access to Justice Commission called the initiative “the future of modern practice of law.”

However, progress has not been uniform.

Washington, which adopted the first LLP program in 2012, canceled it in 2020 after the state Supreme Court voted, 7-2, citing a “small number of interested individuals” and the “overall costs of sustaining the program.” A subsequent report by the Stanford Center on the Legal Profession called those justifications into question, pointing to hostility from Washington’s bar association and turnover on the Supreme Court as more plausible reasons.

“Luckily, we are in a different situation, as you can see how thrilled our entire Supreme Court was with you all becoming members of the bar yesterday,” said retired 18th Judicial District Court Judge Angela R. Arkin.

Jefferson County Magistrate Marianne Tims, who was in the audience, quoted from a text message Chief Justice Brian D. Boatright sent her, calling the LLP swearing-in “one of the few fun things I’ve done as chief.”

“So, just remember that when you’re getting pushback,” Tims told the paraprofessionals.

Generating evictions caselaw

•  Evictions cases are not something the state Supreme Court or Court of Appeals typically rule on, given the context in which evictions unfold. However, Spencer Bailey, an attorney with CED Law, has recently brought multiple successful appeals before both courts on behalf of tenants. He spoke to Colorado Politics about his strategy, the factors that weigh against appellate review of landlord-tenant issues, and the topics he hopes the appellate courts will address next. Here is a portion of the Q&A:

Colorado Politics: Last fall, Justice Melissa Hart suggested lawyers think creatively about how to put topics in front of the Supreme Court that it typically doesn’t get a chance to see. Do you think our current Supreme Court is unusually open to fleshing out evictions case law at this point? Why might that be the case?

Spencer Bailey: Yeah, I certainly do think our current state Supreme Court is more open to deciding these issues that come up in eviction law, or just in a landlord-tenant context, more so than they have been in the recent past.

Why they’re doing that, though, I think I can only speculate. Part of it could be that housing issues are getting a lot more attention and public discourse in the media and in the state and local legislatures across the country. So, that may have directed some of the justices’ attention to this area of law that’s greatly affected many people’s lives. But there’s just been so little scrutiny of the trial courts who have been making these consequential decisions around eviction law. And there’s been so little guidance from the appellate courts. Maybe they’ve just decided that it’s time to step in and provide a little bit more of that guidance.

Heard on appeal

•  The state Supreme Court, by 5-2, said there would be no new trial for a Black defendant in an overwhelmingly White jurisdiction after the trial judge declined to remove a juror who made a racist statement during jury selection. The Court of Appeals previously upheld the defendant’s convictions, but with considerable disagreement about whether the commentary was problematic and what to do about it.

•  A Denver judge took ample precautions to prevent an unfair trial after one juror became stricken mid-deliberations and the alternate juror had to sub in, the Supreme Court ruled.

•  Justice Richard L. Gabriel told the Colorado Attorney General’s Office he was getting irritated with the frequency of the prosecution claiming criminal defendants waived their arguments on appeal, even as the office makes arguments of its own that are potentially waived.

•  The Supreme Court will decide whether Weld County needs to abide by state law when drawing new commissioner district boundaries, the scope of immunity for utilities when their power lines electrocute someone, and whether money used by law enforcement to purchase drugs undercover is subject to the state’s restitution law.

•  The Teller County sheriff can’t authorize his deputies to perform certain duties of federal immigration officers in contravention of Colorado law, the state’s Court of Appeals said.

•  The Court of Appeals once again reminded prosecutors to submit their requests for crime victim restitution by the time of a defendant’s sentencing, and only ask for more time if they don’t have the information.

•  Without saying whether it would violate the rights of neighboring property owners, the Court of Appeals agreed a developer could bring a ballot initiative asking voters to rezone a portion of a planned unit development in Telluride.

•  Following the lead of other states, the Court of Appeals concluded Social Security benefits can be used to fulfill alimony obligations between ex-spouses.

•  In an unusual instance of “cumulative error,” the Court of Appeals reversed a woman’s felony murder conviction because a combination of errors undermined the fairness of her trial.

•  The Court of Appeals overturned a woman’s felony child abuse convictions because the trial judge neglected to ask jurors to specifically find the child abuse resulted in the victims’ deaths.

•  A defendant doesn’t personally have to make a deceptive statement to be guilty of attempting to influence a public servant, the Court of Appeals ruled.

•  Grand jury witnesses can’t be civilly liable for their false testimony, but they can be sued for making bad faith reports to law enforcement, concluded the Court of Appeals.

In federal news

•  By 2-1, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit decided the motivations of high-level government officials don’t matter — a policymaker’s violation of a person’s rights can open up the government itself to liability.

•  A lawyer torpedoed his clients’ excessive force appeal by failing to cite any facts of the case to the 10th Circuit and frustrating the appellate judges’ review of the trial court’s decision.

•  A trial judge made numerous errors when calculating the sentences of a mother and daughter who pleaded guilty to fraudulently selling body parts, the 10th Circuit ruled.

•  In a case that seems unabashedly designed for U.S. Supreme Court review, a federal judge is considering whether to narrowly exempt a Castle Rock church from local zoning regulations on religious grounds.

•  A formerly incarcerated man will have a jury decide whether Colorado prison officials discriminated against him on the basis of disability, even if he can’t recover much in the way of monetary damages.

•  Using recent Supreme Court precedent, a federal judge threw out a voting rights challenge to Colorado Springs’ municipal election schedule on the grounds that the plaintiffs didn’t have standing to sue.

•  A second judge has refused to dismiss Fort Collins from a lawsuit for allegedly failing to supervise an officer who made numerous wrongful arrests — the third such case making its way through federal court.

•  A judge advanced a lawsuit alleging deficient medical care and disability discrimination by the El Paso County jail and its medical contractor.

•  A group of Breckenridge property owners failed to credibly allege the town’s restrictions on short-term rental units violated their constitutional rights, a judge ruled.

•  Jurors will decide whether a Douglas County charter school fired an employee for her social media posts about vaccination.

Vacancies and appointments

•  The governor appointed former deputy district attorney and current Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel W. Warhola to the 18th Judicial District Court, where he will succeed retiring Judge Gary M. Kramer.

•  The governor also selected public defender Scott J. Burrill for the Mesa County Court, where he succeeds now-District Court Judge Craig P. Henderson.

•  The governor appointed Adams County Magistrate Michael W.V. Angel, formerly with the attorney general’s office, to the Denver District Court, where he will succeed the late Judge Christine C. Antoun.

There are three finalists to succeed now-District Court Judge Dennis L. McGuire on the El Paso County Court: Douglas G. Bechtel, Marika Frady and Christopher M. Strider.

•  Applications are due by July 31 to succeed District Court Judge Monica J. Gomez, who is retiring after only two years on the Fourth Judicial District bench — although she was previously a county court judge and magistrate in multiple jurisdictions.

On vacation

•  Court Crawl will be on vacation next week and will return later this summer.