Judiciary of Colorado

The administration of the state judicial system is the responsibility of the Chief Justice of the Colorado Supreme Court as its executive head and is assisted by several other commissions.

It has jurisdiction primarily over final judgments of district courts acting as trial courts, and of approximately 33 kinds of an administrative agency or board determinations.

A small number of municipal courts in Colorado have been granted civil jurisdiction in certain ordinance cases, such as cases involving land use, under municipal home rule powers, in addition to quasi-criminal jurisdiction.

Established in 1969, there are seven water courts in each of Colorado's seven major river basins: South Platte, Arkansas, Rio Grande, Gunnison, Colorado, White, and San Juan.

Some of the most notable of these are the administrative law judges handling election law violations in the Colorado Secretary of State's office, the Public Utilities Commission when it acts in a quasi-judicial manner, unemployment-insurance hearing officers, administrative law judges handling motor vehicle license revocations, quasi-judicial municipal land use boards, professional regulatory boards, and an Independent Ethics Commission.

The Colorado Supreme Court selects the Chief Justice of the Colorado Supreme Court from its membership who is the executive head of the judicial system.

After two years in office, and then after the expiration of each full term in office, judges are subject to retention elections in which voters can choose to retain or not retain a judge.

The vast majority (about 99 per cent) of judges are retained by voters.

State committees make recommendations to voters on the retention of judges distributed in booklet form with partial justifications before each judicial retention election.

Voters have never voted not to retain an appellate judge in the forty years that the system has been in place.

Judges may also be impeached by the legislature (a very rare occurrence) and are monitored by a judicial discipline commission.

Many complaints about judges found by the judicial discipline commission to warrant further investigation are resolved when the judge involved retires, rendering the investigation moot.

Removal from office is mandatory in the case of felonies and "crimes of moral turpitude" of which a judge is convicted.

[16] The Colorado Commission on Judicial Discipline investigates allegations that a judge is not properly performing his or her official duties because of willful misconduct, ethical violations, or a permanent disabling health condition.

In an appropriate case, the Commission also may place a judge on disability retirement.

County court magistrates can hear misdemeanor traffic offenses and civil infractions.

There are certain exceptions, in which an appeal of right lies directly to the Colorado Supreme Court.

Supervision of convicted criminals on probation is a responsibility of the judicial branch.

Incarceration of juvenile and certain mentally ill offenders are also the responsibility of the state government.