justice carlos samour
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Isolation, emotion, persona: Colorado judicial programming prepares people for life on the bench
As a trial judge and now as a member of the Colorado Supreme Court, Justice Carlos A. Samour Jr. has heard the view that being a judge is isolating. “In neither court have I felt isolated. I’ve always interacted a lot with my staff and it becomes sort of a second family,” he said on…
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Divided opinions tick upward, member goes missing | Colorado Supreme Court term in review
The Colorado Supreme Court released the last decisions of its 2025-2026 term at the end of June, with the final numbers showing a significant uptick in non-unanimous opinions over the prior two terms. Further, the composition of the court had an unexpected change, with the appointment of Justice Susan Blanco in February to succeed Justice…
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Colorado justices ponder whether insurer should save company from asbestos suits
Some members of the Colorado Supreme Court appeared skeptical last week that an insurance policy that reaches beyond the limits and coverage of a company’s other policies must “step down into the shoes” of those policies after they become insolvent. The case reached the Supreme Court in an unusual way, after a federal judge asked…
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Colorado Supreme Court upholds child abuse convictions despite faulty jury instruction
The Colorado Supreme Court decided on Monday that a San Miguel County jury properly convicted a defendant of child abuse resulting in death, even though the instructions potentially allowed jurors to avoid finding that the child abuse resulted in death. The court agreed unanimously that the jury instructions for finding Madani Ceus guilty of a…
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Colorado justices suggest father entitled to appeal of custody decision
Members of the Colorado Supreme Court signaled strongly on Tuesday that a father deserved some avenue for challenging a temporary child custody order that no lower court believed it could review due to the unusual circumstances of the case. Because the appeal involved a child welfare matter, neither the underlying filings describing the case nor…
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Colorado justices agree fraud claims belong in corporate dispute
The Colorado Supreme Court decided on Tuesday that a corporate plaintiff validly pursued fraud claims over conduct that was not covered by a contract or by a set of interrelated business agreements leading up to the contract. Previously, the Court of Appeals found that Veolia Water Technologies, Inc. had a duty, independent from any contract,…
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Colorado justices confirm leaving-the-scene prosecutions require no proof of driver’s knowledge
The Colorado Supreme Court confirmed on Tuesday that its 20-year-old decision involving drivers who leave the scene of an accident remains good law and prosecutors do not have to prove that such defendants knew they were involved in an accident. In 2006, the Supreme Court ruled that leaving the scene of an accident resulting in…
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Colorado Supreme Court shuts down ‘new form of representation’ in postconviction cases
While unrepresented defendants in postconviction proceedings are permitted to have a court-appointed attorney investigate and augment their claims, that is not the case when a private lawyer authors the original petition, the Colorado Supreme Court decided on Monday. In contrast to direct appeals of criminal convictions, which usually allege trial- or sentencing-related errors, postconviction relief is…
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Divided Colorado Supreme Court finds parental anonymity in ‘safe haven’ law
Parents who surrender their newborns under Colorado’s “safe haven” law are entitled to anonymity and confidentiality in any subsequent adoptive proceedings involving the child, the state Supreme Court ruled on June 8. Colorado’s law, like its counterparts across the country, is intended to provide new parents with an alternative to abandoning an infant in potentially…
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Colorado justices say judges can nearly eliminate parenting time without it being a ‘restriction’
The Colorado Supreme Court concluded last month that judges can reduce the number of days a parent spends with their child post-divorce to just above zero without it rising to the level of a “restriction” that requires more rigorous justification under the law. While all members of the court agreed that a judge’s decision to…