Federal Judiciary
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Federal judges’ backlog holds steady on Colorado’s district court
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,…
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Biden vetoes bill that would have given Colorado 2 more federal judges
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…
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Federal judges clarify behind-the-scenes interactions, warn about incentives of motions backlog data
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…
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Report: Colorado’s federal trial court saw drop in criminal trials, explosion in insurance verdicts
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.…