Colorado § 42-4-1702 - Alcohol- or drug-related traffic offenses - collateral attack.

§ 42-4-1702. Alcohol- or drug-related traffic offenses - collateral attack.

(1) No person against whom a judgment has been entered for DUI, DUI per se, DWAI, or UDD shall collaterally attack the validity of that judgment unless such attack is commenced within six months after the date of entry of the judgment.

(2) In recognition of the difficulties attending the litigation of stale claims and the potential for frustrating various statutory provisions directed at repeat offenders, former offenders, and habitual offenders, the only exceptions to the time limitations specified in subsection (1)(a) of this section are:

(a) A case in which the court entering judgment did not have jurisdiction over the subject matter of the alleged infraction;

(b) A case in which the court entering judgment did not have jurisdiction over the person of the violator;

(c) Where the court hearing the collateral attack finds by a preponderance of the evidence that the failure to seek relief within the applicable time period was caused by an adjudication of incompetence or by commitment or certification of the violator to an institution for treatment as a person with a mental health disorder; or

(d) Where the court hearing the collateral attack finds that the failure to seek relief within the applicable time period was the result of circumstances amounting to justifiable excuse or excusable neglect.

Source: L. 94: Entire title amended with relocations, p. 2417, § 1, effective January 1, 1995. L. 2006: (2)(c) amended, p. 1409, § 80, effective August 7. L. 2008: (1) amended, p. 253, § 21, effective July 1. L. 2013: (1) amended, (HB 13-1325), ch. 331, p. 1886, § 16, effective May 28. L. 2017: IP(2) and (2)(c) amended, (SB 17-242), ch. 263, p. 1381, § 307, effective May 25.

Editor's note: This section is similar to former § 42-4-1501.5 as it existed prior to 1994, and the former § 42-4-1702 was relocated to § 43-5-502.

Cross references: (1) For provisions concerning limitation for collateral attack upon trial judgment, see § 16-5-402.

(2) For the legislative declaration in SB 17-242, see section 1 of chapter 263, Session Laws of Colorado 2017.

ANNOTATION

Law reviews. For article, "The New Colorado Per Se DUI Law", see 12 Colo. Law. 1451 (1983).

Annotator's note. Since § 42-4-1702 is similar to § 42-4-1501.5 as it existed prior to the 1994 amending of title 42 as enacted by SB 94-1, a relevant case construing that provision has been included with the annotations to this section.

Judicially created grace period for collateral attacks on judgments pursuant to § 16-5-402 did not provide notice that the same grace period would apply to this section. People v. Trimble, 839 P.2d 1168 (Colo. 1992).

Defendant's collateral attacks against prior DWAI convictions untimely because convicting court retains subject matter jurisdiction despite alleged violation of defendant's constitutional right to counsel. People v. Burdette, 2024 COA 38, 552 P.3d 1108.