--- name: co-law-references description: > This skill is a matter-neutral reference catalog for Colorado civil practice. It contains the C.R.C.P. (Colorado Rules of Civil Procedure) summary, the CRE (Colorado Rules of Evidence) summary, fees-and-costs framework under C.R.S. art. 16 of title 13, local rules and Chief Justice Directives, citation format per Colorado Appellate Court conventions, key general-civil cases, and the canonical online-sources catalog. Triggers include "Colorado civil rule", "C.R.C.P.", "CRE", "C.R.S. § 13-16", "Colorado citation format", "what's the Colorado rule on X", "look up Colorado law on X". Other skills cite this one for specific rule numbers and case authorities; the heavy reference corpora (court-rules, federal-debt- laws, ucc-model, co-statutes-debt) live in this skill's `references/` subdirectory. version: 0.2.0 --- # Colorado Law References > **NOT LEGAL ADVICE.** Reference catalog only. Read the cited rule, > statute, or case in full before relying on it. This is the **matter-neutral** reference index for Colorado civil practice. Other skills in the `co-court-docs` plugin point here for rule and statute citations. ## What's here ``` references/ ├── civil-rules.md # C.R.C.P. summary by rule number ├── evidence-rules.md # CRE summary by rule number ├── fees-and-costs.md # C.R.S. art. 16 of title 13 framework ├── local-rules.md # Index of JD-specific local rules ├── citation-format.md # Colorado Appellate Court conventions ├── key-cases.md # General-civil precedents ├── online-sources.md # Canonical URL catalog ├── legal-data-apis.md # Programmatic-access index ├── court-rules/ # Verbatim rule text (corpus) ├── federal-debt-laws/ # FDCPA, FCRA, etc. (shared corpus) ├── ucc-model/ # Model UCC text (shared corpus) └── co-statutes-debt/ # Colorado statute chapters most # relevant to civil practice ``` ## C.R.C.P. — Colorado Rules of Civil Procedure The C.R.C.P. governs all civil proceedings in the Colorado district courts. It is organized in three major chapters: - **Chapter 1** (Rules 1-121) — district court rules - **Chapter 18** (Rules 301-411) — county court civil rules - **Chapter 25** (Rules 501-521) — small claims court A streamlined parallel **Chapter 18** governs **county court**, which follows the same general structure but with simplified procedures and no presumptive C.R.C.P. 26(a)(1) initial disclosures. Key rules every Colorado civil practitioner uses: | Rule | Subject | |------|---------| | C.R.C.P. 4 | Process — summons and service | | C.R.C.P. 5 | Service and filing of pleadings and other papers | | C.R.C.P. 6 | Time computation | | C.R.C.P. 8 | Pleading rules | | C.R.C.P. 10 | Form of pleadings, motions, and other documents | | C.R.C.P. 11 | Signing of pleadings (lawyer registration #) | | C.R.C.P. 12 | Defenses and objections (answer due in 21 days) | | C.R.C.P. 13 | Counterclaim and cross-claim | | C.R.C.P. 15 | Amended and supplemental pleadings | | C.R.C.P. 16 | Pretrial procedure — case management | | C.R.C.P. 16.2 | Domestic relations case management | | C.R.C.P. 26 | Discovery — disclosures and scope | | C.R.C.P. 30 | Depositions | | C.R.C.P. 33 | Interrogatories | | C.R.C.P. 34 | Production of documents | | C.R.C.P. 36 | Requests for admission | | C.R.C.P. 37 | Motion to compel; sanctions | | C.R.C.P. 41 | Dismissal of actions | | C.R.C.P. 54 | Judgment | | C.R.C.P. 55 | Default judgment | | C.R.C.P. 56 | Summary judgment | | C.R.C.P. 59 | Motion for new trial / amend findings | | C.R.C.P. 60 | Relief from judgment | | C.R.C.P. 121 | Local rules — statewide practice standards (the "Rule 121 sections" including § 1-15 motion practice) | See `references/civil-rules.md` for a section-by-section summary. ## CRE — Colorado Rules of Evidence The CRE closely mirrors the Federal Rules of Evidence with some distinctive Colorado provisions: | Rule | Subject | |------|---------| | CRE 101-106 | General provisions | | CRE 201-203 | Judicial notice | | CRE 301-302 | Presumptions | | CRE 401-415 | Relevance and limitations (404(b) prior bad acts, 408 settlement, 411 insurance) | | CRE 501-510 | Privileges (attorney-client, marital, journalist's shield under C.R.S. § 13-90-119) | | CRE 601-615 | Witnesses | | CRE 701-706 | Opinion and experts (Daubert-equivalent — CRE 702 reads like the post-2000 FRE 702) | | CRE 801-807 | Hearsay (note the 803(6) business-records foundation and 902(11) self-authentication) | | CRE 901-903 | Authentication | | CRE 1001-1008 | Best evidence | See `references/evidence-rules.md` for the section-by-section summary and the Colorado distinctives from the FRE. ## Fees and costs — C.R.S. art. 16 of title 13 Colorado follows the **American rule** — each party bears its own attorneys' fees unless a statute, rule, contract, or recognized doctrine shifts. Common shifting authorities: - **C.R.S. § 13-17-101 et seq.** — frivolous, groundless, vexatious - **C.R.S. § 13-17.5-101 et seq.** — fees in prisoner litigation - **C.R.S. § 13-16-122** — court costs allowable on judgment - **C.R.S. § 13-16-104** — costs to prevailing party - **C.R.S. § 6-1-113(2)(a)** — CCPA attorneys' fees mandatory to prevailing consumer - **C.R.S. § 5-16-113(2)** — CFDCPA attorneys' fees - **15 U.S.C. § 1692k(a)(3)** — FDCPA attorneys' fees - **Contractual fee provisions** — enforceable but **reciprocal** under C.R.S. § 13-17-102 in some circumstances See `references/fees-and-costs.md` for the full cost-shifting framework. ## Citation format — Colorado Appellate Court conventions Colorado uses a **public-domain neutral citation** for all Supreme Court and Court of Appeals decisions issued after January 1, 2012, in **parallel** with the West regional reporter: - Colorado Supreme Court (post-2012): `People v. Smith, 2020 CO 12, ¶ 15, 456 P.3d 789` - Colorado Supreme Court (pre-2012): `People v. Jones, 252 P.3d 1191, 1196 (Colo. 2011)` - Colorado Court of Appeals (post-2012): `Smith v. Jones, 2019 COA 45, ¶ 22, 432 P.3d 100` - Colorado Court of Appeals (pre-2012): `Smith v. Jones, 219 P.3d 1130 (Colo. App. 2009)` The neutral citation format is `[YEAR] CO [###]` for the Supreme Court and `[YEAR] COA [###]` for the Court of Appeals; cite to paragraph numbers (`¶`) rather than page numbers since the neutral citation is paragraph-anchored. Federal-court conventions: - Tenth Circuit: `Spann v. Carter, 23 F.4th 1131, 1135 (10th Cir. 2022)` - D. Colo.: `Smith v. Jones, No. 22-cv-00123, 2023 WL 1234567 (D. Colo. Jan. 1, 2023)` Statutes: - Colorado statutes: `C.R.S. § 13-80-103.5(1)(a)` (always with §) - C.R.C.P.: `C.R.C.P. 12(b)(5)` (no § for rules) - CRE: `C.R.E. 803(6)` (use periods) - Federal: `15 U.S.C. § 1692g(b)` - C.F.R.: `12 C.F.R. § 1006.34` See `references/citation-format.md` for the full conventions. ## Local rules — JD-specific Beyond the statewide C.R.C.P. 121 "local rules," each judicial district publishes its own administrative orders and local rules. The most commonly cited: - **2nd JD Admin. Order 23-XX** — Denver case management - **18th JD Local Rules** — Arapahoe / Douglas / Elbert / Lincoln - **4th JD Local Rules** — El Paso / Teller Plus chambers-specific **practice standards** published by individual judges. See `references/local-rules.md` for an index. ## Key cases — general civil A short list of Colorado civil precedents every practitioner cites: - *Parker v. Dist. Court for City & County of Denver*, 173 Colo. 537 (1971) — pro se construction - *Garcia v. Schneider Energy Services, Inc.*, 2012 CO 62 — frivolous-claim sanctions - *Pham v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co.*, 2014 CO 53 — declaratory-judgment standards - *Continental Air Lines v. Keenan*, 731 P.2d 708 (Colo. 1987) — at-will employment exception - *Lewis v. Taylor*, 2016 CO 48 — economic-loss rule - *Town of Alma v. AZCO Const., Inc.*, 10 P.3d 1256 (Colo. 2000) — economic-loss rule origins See `references/key-cases.md` for the expanded list. ## Online sources The canonical URLs for Colorado law: - **Colorado Judicial Branch**: https://www.coloradojudicial.gov - **C.R.C.P. and CRE**: published by Colorado Judicial Branch and at https://www.coloradojudicial.gov/rules - **C.R.S. (Colorado Revised Statutes)**: https://leg.colorado.gov/colorado-revised-statutes - **Colorado Supreme Court opinions**: https://www.cobar.org/Casemaker (and CourtListener) - **CCEFS**: https://www.jbits.courts.state.co.us/efiling/ - **Court records search (limited public)**: https://www.coloradojudicial.gov/court-records See `references/online-sources.md` for the full catalog and `references/legal-data-apis.md` for programmatic access (CourtListener API for Colorado Supreme + COA, GovInfo for federal materials). ## Composition - Every other Colorado skill cites this one for rule numbers, statute numbers, and case authorities - For the specific filing court: `co-denver`, `co-arapahoe`, `co-county-courts` - For matter-specific bundles: `co-consumer-debt`, `co-family-law` ## References - `references/civil-rules.md` - `references/evidence-rules.md` - `references/fees-and-costs.md` - `references/local-rules.md` - `references/citation-format.md` - `references/key-cases.md` - `references/online-sources.md` - `references/legal-data-apis.md` - `references/court-rules/` — verbatim rule corpus (populated by future `pull_co_court_rules.py`) - `references/federal-debt-laws/` — federal-law corpus - `references/ucc-model/` — Model UCC text - `references/co-statutes-debt/` — Colorado statute chapters most relevant to civil practice