Colorado Civil Access Pilot Project

It has been just over a year since substantial changes were made to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, aimed at reducing the high costs and long delays faced by civil court litigants. And, this effort has not been limited to the federal courts. Many state-level changes have also been implemented across the country and Colorado has emerged as a leader by incorporating the federal amendments and making permanent many aspects of its Civil Access Pilot Project.

The Colorado Supreme Court has adopted amendments to the Colorado Rules of Civil Procedure, effective July 1 for cases filed on or after July 1. The amendments are substantial and incorporate the best of Colorado’s Civil Access Pilot Project (CAPP), taking into account a final evaluation of that project and implementing the changes broadly for all civil cases across the state.

The Colorado Supreme Court has requested comments on proposed amendments to the Colorado Rules of Civil Procedure. The changes are focused on improving access to the civil justice system by making pretrial case management more efficient, thereby decreasing cost and delay, without sacrificing justice. The proposals seek to take the best of Colorado’s Civil Access Pilot Project (CAPP) and implement them broadly for all civil cases across the state.

IAALS is pleased to announce the release of our final evaluation results for the Colorado Civil Access Pilot Project (CAPP), the state's experiment with new court procedures. As a whole, CAPP has succeeded in achieving many of its intended effects and the evaluation provides a rich source of information for rulemakers and decision-makers around the country.

The Colorado Supreme Court has extended the Colorado Civil Access Pilot Project (CAPP) for another six months, through June 30, 2015. The pilot project, which was originally schedule to run through December 31, 2013, had already been extended for an additional year to provide the court with more data and a detailed evaluation of the pilot. IAALS' evaluation of CAPP is now complete, and we will be releasing a final report in the coming weeks.

Law Week Colorado recently published an article covering IAALS’ preliminary report on the Colorado Civil Access Pilot Project (CAPP). On April 7, IAALS published its first findings on the project from collected docket and survey data. The Law Week article features interviews with IAALS Executive Director and former Colorado Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Love Kourlis and IAALS Director of Research Corina Gerety.

IAALS is pleased to announce the completion of its preliminary evaluation report on the Colorado Civil Access Pilot Project (CAPP), which tests a new set of pre-trial procedures for business actions in state district court. Our initial analysis reveals that the CAPP process as a whole has succeeded in achieving many of its intended effects, including a reduced time to disposition, increased court interaction, proportional discovery and costs, and a lower level of motions practice.

This short update on the Colorado Civil Access Pilot Project evaluation provides information on the specifics and timing of the evaluation that IAALS is conducting in Colorado. We hope this information will provide some reassurance to the Colorado legal community on what to expect in the coming year, while also providing some insight into other evaluation processes that are going on around the country.

The Colorado Civil Access Pilot Project (CAPP) has been extended by one year, now applying to relevant cases filed through December 31, 2014. Chief Justice Bender’s amended Directive states that the project’s extension will provide “more data and a detailed evaluation” and “give the court time to determine whether the rules as piloted achieved the stated goals." IAALS is conducting the CAPP evaluation at the request of the Colorado Supreme Court, and will issue a public report upon its completion.

In its celebration of 2011 "Lawyers of the Year," LawWeek Colorado named Denver District Court Judge Ann Frick and Sherman & Howard lawyer Skip Netzorg for their roles in creating the rules for the Civil Access Pilot Project.