Appeals judge ceremonially sworn in, federal judges speak about pro se litigation | COURT CRAWL

Welcome to Court Crawl, Colorado Politics' roundup of news from the third branch of government.

The state's second-highest court held a ceremonial swearing-in for one of its newest members, and two federal judges spoke to attorneys about how to interact with self-represented litigants.

'Precocity and pragmatism'

•  In January, Pax L. Moultrie joined Colorado's 22-member Court of Appeals after a few years as a Denver Juvenile Court judge and several years litigating juvenile and child welfare cases in Jefferson and Arapahoe counties. Earlier this month, Moultrie held her ceremonial swearing-in. Her former boss, Chief Justice Brian D. Boatright, administered the oath.

•  Attendees also heard from her father, Ben Moultrie: "Your journey has been a testament to your unique blend of precocity and pragmatism. You devoured legal texts with the same fervor most youngsters reserve for comic books," he recalled.

•  Moultrie gave a shout-out to the lawyers and judges working in the trial courts, and reminded her colleagues that "any decision we make is never going to be harder than living with, or harder than existing in, the hardships we’re making decisions about."

•  The next ceremony will occur in June for Judge Grant T. Sullivan, who joined the Court of Appeals at the same time as Moultrie.

Self-represented litigants

•  One-third of the civil cases filed in Colorado's U.S. District Court have a plaintiff who is self-represented, or "pro se." Last week, Judge Charlotte N. Sweeney and Magistrate Judge Maritza Dominguez Braswell spoke to lawyers who defend against pro se lawsuits, advising them on how to conduct themselves and when to ask for the court's intervention.

•  "This is where your humanity comes into play. Understand that these are real people with things they really think were done to them and caused harm. Have just a bit of empathy. It will go a long way," Sweeney said.

•  The two judges are also the only members of the court to deploy plain English summaries in their orders when a pro se litigant is involved. Dominguez Braswell was the first to incorporate the practice, and she said she would keep it up.

Heard on appeal

•  By 4-3, the Colorado Supreme Court upheld a jury's $9.2 million award in a medical malpractice case, finding no basis to hold the plaintiff's insurance payments against him.

•  A lawyer recently disbarred in the District of Columbia should also be disbarred in Colorado under the notion of "reciprocal discipline," the Supreme Court ruled in rejecting the attorney's defenses.

•  Interpreting Colorado's landmark police accountability law from 2020, the state's Court of Appeals decided the standard for evaluating excessive force cases federally is the same one state judges should use.

•  Juries may have unrestricted access to "pretext" calls between sex assault victims and their alleged perpetrators, the Court of Appeals decided, rejecting the idea that the move would put the victim "in the room" with deliberating jurors.

•  Because a man accused of a crime in El Paso County was incarcerated out of state for a different offense and the other state refused to transfer him to Colorado custody, he was not entitled to a probable cause hearing, the Court of Appeals concluded.

In federal news

•  The ballot title that Colorado voters see when voting for ballot measures is government speech, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit concluded. Therefore, a conservative group was not likely to succeed in its challenge to a state law mandating certain disclosures in ballot titles.

•  The 10th Circuit decided Colorado's recent law protecting speech rights doesn't give people the ability to immediately appeal a dismissal decision in federal court, like it does when lawsuits are brought in state court.

•  A federal judge in Colorado ordered John C. Eastman, who was involved in various attempts to overturn the 2020 election results, to explain why he should remain as counsel on a civil case following his professional discipline in California last month.

•  Two lawyers on opposite sides of a patent infringement case took their email feud to the judge for a resolution. It didn't go well.

•  For the second time recently, a federal judge refused to dismiss Fort Collins from a constitutional rights lawsuit, reasoning the city should have intervened after it learned one of its officers was allegedly arresting motorists without probable cause of intoxication.

Miscellaneous proceedings

•  After jurors could not reach unanimous agreement on the murder charge, the foreperson of a Clear Creek County jury spoke out about her frustrations in the criminal trial of the former sheriff's deputy who killed Christian Glass in 2022.