General Information about the Colorado Appellate Courts The Colorado Court of Appeals is the intermediate appellate court in Colorado. It hears most of the direct appeals from Colorado district courts, as well as appeals from various administrative agencies. It typically issues its decisions on Thursday mornings. Case announcements are posted on the court's website usually by 8:00 a.m. The court issues both published and unpublished decisions, releasing published decisions on alternating weeks and unpublished decisions every week. The full text of published decisions, and the list of unpublished decisions, are available on the court of appeals' website. Copies of unpublished decisions can be requested online and can be e-mailed to you. Like the federal appellate courts, the court sits and decides cases in panels of three. But unlike the federal appellate courts, the Colorado Court of Appeals has no formal en banc procedure. The Colorado Supreme Court is the state's court of last resort. Its jurisdiction includes both direct and discretionary appeals. It typically issues decisions and orders on Mondays (Tuesdays if Monday falls on a legal holiday), and those decisions and orders are available on the court's website around 8 a.m. the morning they are issued. The seven justices of the court sit and decide cases en banc. On Fridays, the court announces in advance which decisions will be issued the following Monday. This gives the practitioner the advantage of knowing in advance if an important decision will come down the following week. For the practitioner who has a case awaiting decision in the court, it has the distinct disadvantage of allowing the practitioner a full weekend of anxiety over an impending decision. The practitioner who merely has a cert. petition pending is spared that anxiety as the cert. announcements are not available until Monday. In extraordinary cases, the court will issue decisions on other days. Recently, the courts have begun putting the audio of their oral arguments on their respective websites. The court of appeals' arguments can be found here, and the supreme court's here. Both the supreme court and the court of appeals reside in the Colorado
Judicial Building, 2 East Fourteenth Avenue, Denver, 80203. The clerk's
office for the court of appeals is on the third floor, and the clerk's
office for the supreme court is on the fourth floor. The court of appeals
and supreme court courtrooms are on the 5th floor. The supreme court
library (which is excellent) is in the basement of the building. The
Colorado state courts have an extensive website that is easy to navigate
and is searchable. Here's the
link.
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