Colorado Supreme Court Chief Justice Monica Márquez dedicated a significant part of her 2025 State of the Judiciary speech to the workload challenges facing judges across the state, and the state’s legislators listened.
A bipartisan bill to increase the number of judgeships across the state is speeding through the General Assembly. Part of the reason for the pace of the bill is due to rules regarding new judgeships that require the bill to pass by a two-thirds margin by the 60th day of the legislative session.
While the bill has wide support, the number of judgeships the bill will provide has steadily dwindled as the measure has moved forward in the legislative process.
The changes to the number came as lawmakers reckoned with budget constraints. Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen and Republican Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer both dedicated significant time on the bill’s second and third readings in the Senate, expressing their concerns over the funding required for the bill.
According to the bill’s initial fiscal note, the costs would have been nearly $19 million for the state’s 2025 fiscal year, growing to more than $26 million in the following year. The most recent, amended bill would be significantly cheaper, registering at nearly $4 million for fiscal 2025 and then increasing to about $12 million in fiscal 2026 before dropping by nearly a million to around $11.4 million in fiscal 2027.
When introduced, the bill proposed to add one district court judge to the 8th, 13th, 19th and 23rd Judicial Districts and two district court judges to the 4th, 17th and 18th Judicial Districts on July 1. On the county level, the bill proposed adding one county court judge in Douglas, La Plata, Larimer, Mesa, Weld, Eagle, Adams and Arapahoe counties, also starting July 1.
Another increase would have come in 2026, with the 2nd, 7th, 17th, 18th and 20th Judicial Districts, along with the Denver Probate Court, all receiving an additional judge. Larger additions would come to the 4th Judicial District and the Colorado Court of Appeals, with an additional two and three judges added, respectively. All told, the bill would have added 29 judges across the state, and increased funding for the state’s public defender office and for Bridges of Colorado.
At the bill’s first committee hearing on Jan. 19, Republican Sen. Lisa Frizell and Democratic Sen. Dylan Roberts, two of the bill’s prime sponsors, spoke of the importance of the judicial branch and the difficulties in regards to workload that its members face, including the difficulty of recruiting judges because of an overwhelming caseload.
Roberts noted in the bill’s first hearing that he viewed the initial draft of the legislation as a modest proposal.
“I think it is a very reasonable, targeted proposal that is based off data, a workload study that the department has been engaged in over many years,” Roberts said.
The bill survived its initial committee hearing as written, clearing on a 6-1 vote. But the cuts started when the bill was heard in the Senate Appropriations Committee on Feb. 14.
Three amendments were passed, two brought from the bill’s sponsors and one brought from Kirmeyer of the committee.
The amendment brought from Kirkmeyer amended out appropriations in the original bill for the Colorado Office of the State Public Defender and for Bridges of Colorado in the bill. “Our budget is on an unsustainable path, and that’s the problem we’re running into,” Kirkemeyer said in the hearing.
At the bill’s second reading, an amendment to the bill proposed by its sponsors nearly halved the number of new judges created by the bill, from 29 to 15. Another amendment proposed by the sponsors at the second reading brought back the funding for public defenders into the bill, but not the funding for the Bridges program. Both amendments passed.
The following day, on the bill’s third reading, it gained its sixth amendment. Roberts noted that this was a minor one, with only a few changes to the dates outlined in the bill.
The bill passed its first hurdle in the House on March 4, moving from the House Judiciary Committee to the House floor. Just a few days later it passed in House appropriations, and after being laid over on March 11, it passed its second reading by special order on March 12.
Terry Scanlon, legislative liaison for the Colorado Judicial Branch, told the committee that the 15 judgeships in the amended bill were chosen based on a workload model.
Five of the positions would start on July 1, with the remaining 10 starting on July 1, 2026. The positions that would be starting this year include a county court judge position in La Plata County and district court judge positions in the 4th, 17th, 18th and 23rd Judicial Districts. In 2026, Larimer, Douglas, Mesa and Eagle counties will all receive a new county court judge, and the 4th, 7th, 13th, 17th, 18th and 19th Judicial Districts will all receive an additional district court judge.
At the time of publication, no date has been set for its third reading in the House.