Colorado § 13-5.5-108 - Judicial performance evaluations in retention election years - procedure - recommendations.

§ 13-5.5-108. Judicial performance evaluations in retention election years - procedure - recommendations.

(1) Judicial performance evaluations for justices or judges whose terms are to expire and who must stand for retention election are conducted as follows:

(a) The state commission shall conduct a judicial performance evaluation of each such justice of the supreme court and judge of the court of appeals; and

(b) The district commission shall conduct a judicial performance evaluation for each district judge and county judge.

(2) (a) The applicable commission shall complete a retention year evaluation and related narrative to be communicated to the justice or judge no later than forty-five days prior to the last day available for the justice or judge to declare his or her intent to stand for retention.

(b) The narrative prepared for a retention year evaluation must include an assessment of the justice's or judge's strengths and weaknesses with respect to the judicial performance criteria contained in section 13-5.5-107, a discussion regarding any deficiency identified in an interim evaluation prepared pursuant to section 13-5.5-109, a review of any improvement plan developed pursuant to section 13-5.5-110, and a statement of whether the applicable commission concludes that any deficiency identified has been satisfactorily addressed, or a statement from the chief justice or appropriate chief judge that an improvement plan, if any, was satisfactorily followed by the justice or judge.

(c) The applicable commission shall grant each justice or judge who receives a retention year evaluation the opportunity to meet with the commission or otherwise respond to the evaluation no later than ten days following his or her receipt of the evaluation. If the meeting is held or a response is made, the applicable commission may revise its evaluation.

(3) After the requirements of subsection (2) of this section are met, the applicable commission shall make a recommendation regarding the performance of each justice or judge who declares his or her intent to stand for retention. The recommendations must be stated as "meets performance standard" or "does not meet performance standard". For a justice or judge to receive a designation of "does not meet performance standard", there must be a majority vote by the commission members that the particular justice or judge should receive such a recommendation.

(4) District commissions shall forward recommendations, narratives, and any other relevant information, including any completed judicial surveys, to the state commission according to the provisions of section 13-5.5-105.

(5) The state commission shall release the narrative, the recommendation, and any other relevant information related to a retention year evaluation, including the information forwarded pursuant to section 13-5.5-105, to the public no later than two months prior to the retention election. The state commission shall arrange to have the narrative and recommendation for each justice and judge standing for retention printed in the ballot information booklet prepared pursuant to section 1-40-124.5 and mailed to electors pursuant to section 1-40-125.

Source: L. 2017: Entire article R&RE, (HB 17-1303), ch. 331, p. 1775, § 1, effective August 9.

Editor's note: This section is similar to former § 13-5.5-106 as it existed prior to 2017.