How Does a Judge Become a Judge?

Audio Transcription

This panel explains the Merit Selection process that Colorado uses to choose Judges and Justices. How does a judge become a judge? 1. A judicial nominating commission interviews applicants for an open judgeship and recommends two to three nominees to the governor. The governor chooses the new judge. 2. At the next general election after the judge has served for two years, the voters in the judge's district vote to decide whether the judge should continue to serve. For Court of Appeals judges and Supreme Court justices, these retention elections are statewide. How do voters know whether a judge is doing a good job? Colorado's judicial performance commissions continually collect information about the performance of judges and justices. This information is posted on the internet at https://judicialperformance.colorado.gov/ before each retention election, and the commission's evaluation is included in the voter information "Blue Book" that is mailed by the Legislative Council of the General Assembly to every household with one or more registered voters before an election. The same website explains how members are chosen for the commissions that nominate judges and review their performance. There are more non-lawyers than lawyers on each commission. 3. When voters decide a judge should continue to serve, the judge or justice serves a regular term of office, at the end of which the voters will have additional opportunities to determine whether the judge will be permitted to serve future terms. Voters will make this decision every four years for each county court judge, every six years for each district court judge, every eight years for each Court of Appeals judge, and every ten years for each Supreme Court justice. 4. In addition to these reviews and elections, each Colorado state court judge must meet the high standards of judicial conduct. The Colorado Commission on Judicial Discipline investigates allegations of misconduct by a judge, failure to perform judicial duties, alcohol or drug abuse, and other issues. All Colorado state court judges must retire by age 72. Colorado's merit selection system provides that judges are selected based on their ability to know and apply the law fairly and impartially. They serve a provisional term during which they are evaluated, after which the voters decide whether each judge should continue to serve.