justice maria berkenkotter
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Colorado justices consider whether to restore $5.7 million award to RTD subcontractor
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Members of the Colorado Supreme Court considered last week whether the Court of Appeals incorrectly threw out a $5.7 million award to a company that helped build a commuter rail line and, in doing so, deterred public works contractors from seeking to recover money they are owed through the process envisioned in state law. Ralph…
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Colorado justices hear pleas to expand attorney discipline for sexual misconduct
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Members of the Colorado Supreme Court heard from multiple commenters last week about the need to change the rules governing attorney regulation and discipline to allow for investigations of lawyers who committed unlawful sex acts at any point in their careers. The justices scheduled a Nov. 19 hearing to address proposed amendments to the rules…
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Colorado justices sympathetic to defendant’s claim of speedy trial violation
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Members of the Colorado Supreme Court appeared sympathetic on Wednesday to the argument that an El Paso County prosecutor made an unjustified decision to file a mid-case appeal, pushing the trial beyond the legal deadline and requiring dismissal of the charges. The Supreme Court originally took an interest in Khristina Phillips’ ongoing misdemeanor prosecution in…
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Colorado justices receptive to allowing lawyers to ‘borrow’ allegations from elsewhere
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Members of the Colorado Supreme Court seemed open on Tuesday to the idea that plaintiffs’ lawyers can use allegations made elsewhere to bolster their own clients’ claims, so long as the attorney first performs some degree of investigation into the “borrowed” assertions. Under Colorado’s rules for civil cases, attorneys must attest that the complaints they…
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Justice Melissa Hart missing for third week as judiciary defends Colorado Supreme Court’s functioning
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Justice Melissa Hart missed a third straight week of case considerations as of Monday, with the Colorado Supreme Court indicating she again did not participate in the court’s weekly decision-making about whether to accept or reject pending appeals. The Colorado Judicial Department told Colorado Politics last week that Hart has been on a leave of…
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Colorado Supreme Court addresses ‘weaponization’ of paraprofessional program by loosening rules
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The Colorado Supreme Court recently revised the rules governing the state’s relatively new legal paraprofessional program after hearing complaints that procedural barriers were preventing adequate representation of clients and generating unnecessary courtroom disputes. Last year, the court hosted a groundbreaking inauguration of a new category of legal workers: licensed legal paraprofessionals. Fifty-nine LLPs took the oath…
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Appeals court reverses murder conviction after Denver judge violated public trial right
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Colorado’s second-highest court reversed a defendant’s murder conviction on Thursday because a Denver judge violated his constitutional right to a public trial. Due to an unusually large jury pool at Edward R. Sandoval’s 2022 trial, Chief Judge Christopher J. Baumann did not allow observers to be present in his courtroom during jury selection. Although the…
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Colorado justices, appeals judges speak of need to keep heads down amid political attacks
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Two members of the Colorado Supreme Court and three Court of Appeals judges discussed their obligation on Tuesday to refrain from pushing back overtly on political attacks or misrepresentations of their work. Chief Justice Monica M. Márquez also disclosed certain strategies the judicial branch is employing to counter tangible threats to judges’ security. “My concern is…
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Colorado Supreme Court weighs whether lifetime sex offender registration amounts to ‘punishment’
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Members of the Colorado Supreme Court appeared wary last week of deeming lifetime sex offender registration “punishment,” even as they heard about the inescapable consequences for a person’s liberty and privacy. Under Colorado law, “sexually violent predators” are subject to lifetime sex offender registration. To qualify, they must be 18 years or older, convicted of certain offenses,…
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Colorado justices ponder whether rental car companies are also ‘insurers’
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The Colorado Supreme Court considered last week whether car rental companies that offer insurance policies can also be deemed “insurers” who may be sued for their failure to pay out benefits on claims. Hertz Corp. argued it was not an insurance company based on a sequence of events in the 1990s. The Supreme Court ruled…