justice carlos samour
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Colorado’s new ‘reasonable doubt’ instruction upheld, despite cautions from some appeals judges
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Colorado’s second-highest court has upheld the recently reworded definition of “reasonable doubt” that appears in the template jury instructions for criminal trials, which generated controversy at the time of its debut. In a pair of precedent-setting opinions issued the same day last week, two separate panels for the Court of Appeals found no legal deficiency…
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Colorado Supreme Court ponders when negative online reviews are insulated from lawsuits
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Members of the Colorado Supreme Court considered last week whether a person’s vindictive motivations in posting a negative online review can nevertheless relate to a matter of public interest, and potentially shield the commentary from a defamation lawsuit. For the first time, the state’s highest court examined Colorado’s 2019 “anti-SLAPP” law, which stands for “strategic…
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Colorado justices appear open to striking down harsher municipal sentences
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Members of the Colorado Supreme Court appeared open last week to the idea that municipalities cannot impose harsher sentences under their own ordinances than state law does for identical criminal offenses. In a rare pair of appeals taken directly from municipal court, the justices heard about an unusual twist in the relationship between state and…
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Colorado justices ponder whether defendants must repay money police use for drug buys
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If undercover police officers buy drugs from a suspected drug dealer, but they let him leave with the money and never recover it, is the defendant obligated to repay the amount as crime victim restitution? Members of the Colorado Supreme Court grappled with the question on Thursday, with multiple justices wondering how the state’s restitution…
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Colorado justices uphold confidentiality of truck driver’s medical records after fatal crash
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The Colorado Supreme Court ruled on Monday that the surviving family members of a deceased motorist may obtain the other driver’s narrative of what happened, but they cannot do it through the medical records generated from his post-accident hospital visit. Relatives of Timothy Trenshaw sought to use five sentences from the notes of an emergency…
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Colorado Supreme Court green-lights lawsuit over climate change impacts to Boulder County
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The Colorado Supreme Court permitted Boulder County and the city of Boulder on Monday to proceed with their lawsuit against two fossil fuel corporations over alleged local harms caused by the effects of climate change. By 5-2, the Supreme Court concluded federal law did not preclude the local governments from raising state-level claims of nuisance,…
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Appeals judges give Colorado lawyers inside view of courts | APPELLATE UPDATE
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Members of the appeals courts headquartered in Denver gave lawyers a peek on Friday into their behind-the-scenes operations and offered tips about presenting a compelling case to the people making decisions. “You have to pay attention to the entire bench, right? I think one mistake that you can make, as the questions start coming in,…
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Colorado Supreme Court considers father’s window to sue over daughter’s injury, death
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Facing a confusing matrix in state law, members of the Colorado Supreme Court attempted to sort out on Wednesday how long a father had to sue after his daughter was rendered unconscious and later died from a vehicle accident. Danielle Nicola was crossing a Grand Junction street one night in November 2018 when a driver…
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Colorado justices consider when parents forfeit right to jury trial in child neglect cases
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For parents involved in child neglect cases, Colorado lawmakers have given them the right to ask for a jury trial on the question of whether their children are neglected — a right they give up if they fail to appear at trial. On Tuesday, members of the Colorado Supreme Court heard arguments in three cases in…
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Colorado justices say judge had no grounds to order defendant to turn over info to prosecution
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The Colorado Supreme Court agreed on Monday that a trial judge had no authority to order a defendant to give the prosecution a preview of what his expert witness would say at a hearing to challenge his murder convictions. In contrast to direct appeals of criminal convictions, defendants may pursue postconviction relief in the trial courts for…