YOUR AD HERE »

5th Judicial District courts to get an additional judge

Randy Wyrick
vail daily

EAGLE – Judges in the 5th Judicial District carry Colorado’s heaviest caseload, but should get some help this summer.

Lawmakers passed the measure 60-2 in Colorado’s House of Representatives, and unanimously in the Senate.

State legislators Rep. Millie Hamner and Sen. Gail Schwartz carried the bill.



“It’s a perfect example of governments working together to get something done,” said District Court Judge Tom Moorhead, chief judge for the 5th Judicial District.

Last summer Colorado’s state court administrator’s office determined that judges in the 5th Judicial District have the highest caseload of any district court in the state. Sherry Stwalley, Patricia Brodhead and Steve Vasconcellos did the analysis and decided to take the matter to the Legislature as a budget request.



They found that the 5th Judicial District has the lowest district court judge staffing level in Colorado, just under 70 percent of full staffing.

In Eagle County, the district court’s caseload is up 98 percent since 2003, due mostly to civil cases, and not including tax liens and foreclosures, according to the state judicial branch. Foreclosures and tax lien cases are up 332 percent in the 5th Judicial District over the past 10 years, they found.

The district last received a new judgeship in 2005. Since then, the caseload in the has grown by 71 percent.

Currently, there are two district judges assigned to Eagle County, Moorhead and District Court Judge Fred Gannett. Summit County has two judges and Clear Creek County has one. Judges travel to Lake County when necessary.

Because of the filing growth in Eagle, judges from Summit and Clear Creek often travel to Eagle to help with the overflow of cases filed there, said Jon Sarche, state court spokesman.

If funded, the district will place another judge in Eagle County to help offset this workload, and allow the other judges to focus their time on Summit, Clear Creek and Lake counties, which have also experienced workload increases.

HB 1035 breezed through the Legislature, and had the support of every board of county commissioners in the four-county 5th Judicial District. Eagle County’s board of county commissioners passes a resolution supporting the bill.

“We received incredible support from the boards of county commissioners,” Moorhead said.

To be a judge, you need a minimum of five years of law practice in Colorado and be a resident of the 5th Judicial District, Sarche said.

A selection committee will screen applicants and do interviews, then send three names to Gov. Hickenlooper for the final decision. The governor has 15 days to make that decision, and the appointee has to come from those three names, Sarche said.

Moorhead said he hopes to have the new judge on the bench by in the Eagle County Justice Center by July 1.

About a month before that date, the Colorado State Judicial Branch will announce the new judgeship and start collecting applications, said Jon Sarche, state court spokesman.

The applications go to the 5th Judicial District nominating commission, a seven-member panel comprised of four non-attorneys and three attorneys. Their political affiliations have to be divided so neither party has more than a one-vote majority, Sarche said. The 5th’s nominating commission is comprised of two Republicans, three Democrats and two politically unaffiliated members.

That panel will select the three finalists to send to the governor.

District court judges serve a six-year term. The new judge will go through a two-year probation period, then voters will decide whether the new judge should be retained.

District courts handle general jurisdiction including criminal, civil, domestic relations, juvenile, probate, mental health and water cases.

Across Colorado, district court filings have grown 70.47 percent in 10 years.

A Colorado district court judge earns $128,598 a year.

The new judge in the 5th Judicial District is one of two Colorado’s judicial department requested. The other is for the 9th Judicial District: Garfield, Pitkin and Rio Blanco counties. The 9th Judicial District has the second-lowest district court judge staffing level in Colorado, at approximately 73 percent of full staffing, according to data from the state judicial branch.

Colorado’s Department of Local Affairs said the 5th Judicial District’s population in 2010 was approximately 96,589, an 8 percent increase since 2005. Population is projected to grow approximately 2 percent per year for the next 15 years


Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism

As a Summit Daily News reader, you make our work possible.

Summit Daily is embarking on a multiyear project to digitize its archives going back to 1989 and make them available to the public in partnership with the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection. The full project is expected to cost about $165,000. All donations made in 2023 will go directly toward this project.

Every contribution, no matter the size, will make a difference.