How to be a County Court Judge in Colorado

We’ve all heard the stories: “You don’t need to go to law school to be an attorney.” “If you fail a section of the bar exam, then you can re-sit that section.” “You don’t need to be a lawyer in order to become a judge.”

As a general rule, all three of the statements are false. There are exceptions, such as Vermont, Washington, California, Virginia and Wyoming that allow for an apprentice readership scheme for being admitted to practice law. When most people think of “the bar exam”, they are referring to the July and February multiday exam, in which you must pass all sections for that sitting in order to pass the entire exam. There is no a la carte exam.

In New York for example, to become licenced, you would need to pass the Uniform Bar Exam
(UBE), the NY Law Exam (NYLE), and the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam (MPRE). The latter two are offered several times a year and are considered requirements of licensure, but not the bar.

Qualifications to be a judge in Colorado generally go contrary to the one liner above. District Court judges are required to have five years of legal experience practicing before being able to become a judge. Many county courts require that a candidate be at least licenced in Colorado. However, there is an exception where the county is a small population county.

State statute divides counties into four classes. Class C and D counties may have a county court judge that is merely a high school diploma holder. An exception to this exception is when the workload hits 80% of full time. In this case, the judge would need to meet the requirements of a Class B county and be licenced to practice law in Colorado.

CRS 13-6-201 lays out the classes of counties:

Class A shall consist of the city and county of Denver.

Class B shall consist of the counties of Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Douglas, Eagle, El Paso, Fremont, Jefferson, La Plata, Larimer, Mesa, Montrose, Pueblo, Summit, Weld, and the city and county of Broomfield.

Class C shall consist of the counties of Alamosa, Delta, Garfield, Las Animas, Logan, Montezuma, Morgan, Otero, Prowers, and Rio Grande.

Class D shall consist of the counties of Archuleta, Baca, Bent, Chaffee, Cheyenne, Clear Creek, Conejos, Costilla, Crowley, Custer, Dolores, Elbert, Gilpin, Grand, Gunnison, Jackson, Hinsdale, Huerfano, Kiowa, Kit Carson, Lake, Lincoln, Mineral, Moffat, Ouray, Park, Phillips, Pitkin, Saguache, San Juan, San Miguel, Sedgwick, Rio Blanco, Routt, Teller, Washington, and Yuma.

The annual salary of Denver is affixed by the ordinances of Denver.

The annual salary of Class B county judges is $63,500. CRS 13-30-103(j). This is section is read in tandum with CRS 13-30-104, which states that “for the fiscal year commencing July 1, 1999, and for each fiscal year thereafter, the increase over and above the provisions set forth in this section and section 13-30-103, if any, in compensation of justices and judges shall be determined by the general assembly as set forth in the annual general appropriations bill. Any increase in judicial compensation set forth in an annual general appropriations bill shall be an increase only for the fiscal year of the annual general appropriations bill in which the amount is specified and shall not constitute an increase for any other fiscal year. It is the intent of the general assembly that an increase in judicial compensation specified in an annual general appropriations bill shall be added to the compensation set forth in this section and section 13-30-103 and shall not represent a statutory change.”

The annual salary of judges of the county court in each Class C or Class D counties is determined annually by the chief justice and certified to the general assembly and the controller pursuant to procedures approved by the Supreme Court. In determining the salaries to take effect on July 1 of each year, the chief justice shall use the average number of cases filed annually in each county court during the three-year period ending on the previous December 31. CRS 13-30-103(l).

For a current table of judge’s salaries in Colorado, click here.

Senate Bill 15-288, which was signed into law by Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, on June 3, 2015, ties lawmakers’ and other elected officials’ pay to a percent of judges’ salaries. The law takes effect in January 2019 and means that any increases for judges, will also increase executive and legislative branch pay simultaneously.

When the workload for a part-time county judge reaches eighty percent of a full-time workload, the chief justice may assign the part-time county judge to serve on a full-time basis, so long as the part-time county judge meets the qualifications established for county judges in Class A and Class B counties, as specified in section 13-6-203.

As to the qualifications:

(1) The county judge shall be a qualified elector of the county for which he is elected or appointed and shall reside there so long as he serves as county judge.

(2) In counties of Class A and B, no person shall be eligible for election or appointment to the office of county judge unless he has been admitted to the practice of law in Colorado.

(3) In counties of Class C and Class D, a person is not eligible for appointment to the office of county judge unless he or she has graduated from high school. CSR 13-6-203.

The jurisdiction of county courts includes the handling of such things as civil cases under $15,000, misdemeanours, traffic infractions, small claims, and protection orders.

In 2011, The Denver Post reported that seven counties had non-attorney judges.