Colorado Court of Appeals


The Colorado Court of Appeals is the intermediate-level appellate court for the state of Colorado. It was established by statute in 1891, and abolished in 1905. But re-established in 1913, and re-abolished in 1917 and established its current form again in 1970 by the Colorado General Assembly under Article VI, Section 1 of the Constitution of Colorado.

Jurisdiction

The Court of Appeals has appellate jurisdiction primarily over final judgments of district courts acting as trial courts, and of approximately 33 kinds of administrative agency or board determinations. It is bypassed in the case of death penalty appeals, cases in which a lower court has declared a law or ordinance to be unconstitutional, appeals from Public Utilities Commission decisions, certain appeals related to the initiative process, interlocutory relief, and the further appeal of cases already appealed from a county or municipal court to a district court judge, all of which are appealed directly to the Colorado Supreme Court.

Structure

There is a single geographical division of the Colorado Court of Appeals. The court sits in three-member divisions to decide cases. The chief judge, appointed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, assigns judges to the divisions and rotates their assignments. The Colorado Court of Appeals does not have any internal subject-matter divisions, and it does not have "en banc" review of panel decisions as the federal United States courts of appeals do.

Location

The court is based in Denver, but is authorized to sit in any county seat to hear cases. The court sends panels once a year to decide cases at the University of Colorado School of Law and the Sturm College of Law at the University of Denver to allow law students to observe the appellate process.
The court has two courtrooms in the Ralph L. Carr Colorado Judicial Center, located at 2 East 14th Avenue in Denver, Colorado.

Administration

These court also has many others employee including support staff, secretary, law clerk, reporter and attorneys. There are 105 court employees, including the judges.
The Colorado appeals court had appealed more than 100 cases each year since 2012. In the past two decades the states appeal court has experienced a dramatic increase in both caseload volume and delay, and because of this, case time is measured in terms of months and years.

Judges

The Colorado Court of Appeals, located in Denver, has 22 judges. The judges serve eight-year terms and are subject to retention elections. Each of these judges has his or her own separate chambers located in the Ralph L. Carr Judicial Center.