recuse
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Colorado justices spar over need for new trial due to biased judge
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When public defender Amanda C. Hopkins appeared in Saguache County District Court on April 17, 2018, her client failed to show up. The hearing was over in a matter of minutes. Records at the time did not document her brief substitution for the regular public defender assigned to the case. Three months later, Hopkins became…
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Colorado Supreme Court to hear case of conflicted judge
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When a judge took office in Saguache County four years ago, she presided over a criminal case in which she previously, as a public defender, had appeared briefly on behalf of the defendant. No one raised a red flag at the time. Now, the Colorado Supreme Court has agreed to review a split decision from…
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Appeals court finds Adams County judge not required to recuse based on prior employment
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Colorado’s second-highest court ruled on Thursday that an Adams County judge did not need to recuse himself from presiding over an eviction case solely because his former law firm once represented the landlord in an unrelated lawsuit. District Court Judge Kyle Seedorf denied on three occasions a request from Rebekah Panzlau to recuse himself from…
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Judicial ethics panel clarifies when judges must recuse due to lawyer spouses
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Colorado judges who are married to other attorneys are only required to recuse themselves from a case if their spouse actually appears in the dispute, the state’s judicial ethics panel clarified last week. An unnamed judge, whose spouse practices law in the same district, posed a series of questions to the Colorado Judicial Ethics Advisory Board…
