Judicial Discipline Procedures And Reporting

Legislative Interim Committee on Judicial Discipline. The bill requires the rule-making committee that is established in the constitution to propose rules for the commission on judicial discipline (commission) process to provide the commission commission on judicial discipline (commission) and judicial discipline adjudicative board (board) with reasonable notice before proposing any new rule or amendment and requires the committee to post notice of each rule change and allow for public comment concerning proposed changes.For the rules governing judicial discipline adjudicative board (board) proceedings promulgated by the Colorado supreme court, the bill requires the supreme court to provide the board with notice and an opportunity to object and, if the board objects, to engage with the board in good-faith efforts to resolve differences, and post notice of each rule, guideline, or procedure and allow for public comment, including an opportunity for the public to address the supreme court.

Current law requires the commission to maintain annual data and statistics related to its work and judicial misconduct allegations. The bill requires the commission to maintain additional information and requires the commission to include the data and information in its annual report and make the data and information available online in a searchable format.

The bill repeals the statute establishing the legislative interim committee on judicial discipline because the committee is not authorized to meet after the 2022 legislative interim.

The bill permits a person to submit a request for evaluation of judicial misconduct by mail or online. The office of judicial discipline (office) is required to develop an online request for evaluation form that is accessible from the commission's public website. The bill permits a person to submit a confidential or anonymous request for evaluation.

The bill establishes a process for the office to provide complainants with information about the judicial discipline process and about the status of the complainant's request and any subsequent investigation and disciplinary or adjudicative process.

The bill requires a judge member of a board panel hearing a judicial discipline proceeding to provide administrative staff support for the panel.

The bill repeals statutory provisions concerning the confidentiality of judicial discipline investigation records.

(Note: Italicized words indicate new material added to the original summary; dashes through words indicate deletions from the original summary.)

(Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)