[1] Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Cotter was a truck driver during the Great Depression, receiving a B.S.
[2] In 1950, Governor Chester Bowles appointed Cotter to the Court of Common Pleas, and in 1955 Governor Abraham Ribicoff elevated him to the Superior Court,[2] where Cotter bristled at the tendency of lawyers to continually seek to put off scheduled trials due to lack of preparation.
[3] In 1965, Cotter was appointed to the Connecticut Supreme Court, where he was initially a frequent dissenter.
[1] As Chief Justice of Connecticut, Cotter oversaw the consolidation of the state's disorganized court system into its current structure.
[1] Cotter died in a nursing home in Bloomfield, Connecticut at the age of 82.