Federal Judiciary
-
Federal judges’ backlog holds steady on Colorado’s district court
—
by
As of Sept. 30, Colorado’s federal trial judges collectively had 73 motions in civil cases that had been sitting on their dockets for at least six months without a ruling. The Civil Justice Reform Act of 1990 requires public reporting of motions awaiting action in civil matters assigned to each district judge and magistrate judge. Twice a year,…
-
Biden vetoes bill that would have given Colorado 2 more federal judges
—
by
President Joe Biden vetoed legislation on Monday that would have added two seats to Colorado’s federal trial court and a total of 66 federal judgeships nationwide. The JUDGES Act would have increased the size of federal district courts in two-year increments over multiple presidential administrations. Colorado, which has had seven active district judges for 40 years, would…
-
Federal judges clarify behind-the-scenes interactions, warn about incentives of motions backlog data
—
by
Two members of Colorado’s federal bench spoke on Thursday about the ways in which district judges and magistrate judges interact without compromising each other’s independence, plus they delivered a warning about how the public disclosure of docket data can create problematic incentives to deciding cases. Most civil cases in Colorado’s federal trial court are assigned…
-
Report: Colorado’s federal trial court saw drop in criminal trials, explosion in insurance verdicts
—
by
The number of criminal jury trials dropped significantly in Colorado’s federal trial court, insurance cases made up half of all civil jury trials and self-represented litigants only filed one-quarter of all lawsuits last year. Those were the trends highlighted in an annual report of the U.S. District Court’s workload presented last week by Chief U.S.…