child neglect
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El Paso County judge wrongly revoked father’s jury trial in child neglect case, appeals court finds
Colorado’s second-highest court ruled on Thursday that an El Paso County judge wrongly revoked a father’s choice of a jury trial in his child neglect case because the man had failed to appear two years earlier for a separate proceeding. Under Colorado law, parents have the right of a jury trial to determine whether a…
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Colorado Supreme Court takes up 6 cases on involuntary intoxication, malicious prosecution, child neglect trials
The Colorado Supreme Court announced on Monday it will hear appeals in six cases, including the question of whether a person can claim he knowingly ingested one substance that was secretly laced with another behavior-altering substance as a defense to criminal charges. At least three of the court’s seven members must agree to grant an…
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Divided appeals court rules child neglect determinations cannot hinge on uncertain effects of drug exposure
Colorado’s second-highest court ruled on Thursday that a recent change to the state’s child neglect laws requires more than just the possibility an infant exposed to drugs at birth will experience negative health effects in the future. Prior to 2020, a court could declare a child neglected if, among other things, they tested positive at…
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Appeals court clarifies significance of pinpointing drug exposure for child neglect cases
Colorado’s second-highest court on Thursday clarified it does matter whether a child experienced drug exposure in her parents’ custody, rejecting a Montrose County judge’s conclusion that the location was irrelevant to determining whether the infant was neglected. A child is neglected under Colorado law if, among other things, their “environment is injurious” to their welfare.…
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Colorado Supreme Court to analyze how wage law applies to Amazon holiday pay
The Colorado Supreme Court recently announced it will decide whether Amazon is complying with the state’s wage law by excluding shifts worked on holidays when calculating employees’ overtime pay. At least three of the court’s seven members must agree to hear an appeal. The case addressing overtime pay came to the Supreme Court through an…
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Denver judge wrongly revoked jury trial in child neglect case, says appeals court
A Denver judge acted improperly by canceling a jury trial that two parents had requested in their child neglect case, the state’s second-highest court ruled last month. Although three-judge panels of the Court of Appeals are not bound by each other’s decisions, an appellate panel on Oct. 19 agreed with their counterparts who concluded earlier…
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Colorado justices clarify threshold for accessing government files in child neglect cases
The Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday rebuffed Washington County’s request to apply a tougher standard for parents who seek to access government documents in child neglect cases, instead adopting the more lenient threshold for civil proceedings. The ruling makes it easier for a father and mother in an ongoing custody case to obtain records Washington…
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Child neglect rulings in 3 cases reversed by Colorado appeals court
Colorado’s second-highest court on Thursday determined judges in Montrose and Mesa counties improperly ruled against parents in child welfare cases, with one judge being the subject of two reversals. Weeks earlier, Montrose County District Court Judge D. Cory Jackson was reversed a third time by the Court of Appeals because he denied a woman’s request for…
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Adams County judge wrongly canceled child neglect jury trial after mom failed to appear, appeals court finds
Colorado’s second-highest court ruled last week that an Adams County judge who wound up deciding a child neglect case had no authority to cancel the planned jury trial solely because the mother failed to appear at a pretrial conference. A three-judge panel for the Court of Appeals also warned that to the extent judges across…
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Supreme Court modifies ruling in child neglect case, insists mother’s rights were honored
The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday took the unusual step of modifying its recent ruling in a child neglect case, explicitly rejecting a mother’s claim that her procedural rights were violated in the welfare proceedings. In January, the court decided that when the government proves a child suffers a single serious bodily injury, even if…