In this series of short articles, I have been sharing my thoughts about what I observe in my review of the Colorado Judicial Branch’s Annual Statistical Reports for 2015 and 2016 (each is a “Report”). These Reports contain statistics for the Colorado Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals, Colorado’s District Courts, Colorado’s County Courts, and the Water Court, among other things.  These reports are available to the public via the Courts’ website 

In this final installment within this series, I breakdown the types of Colorado District Court cases filed in fiscal 2015, which constitute the majority of the civil litigation cases filed. This information should be useful both to general civil practitioners of law and to those interested in learning what the Courts actually spend time on within the civil law context (which does not include domestic relations or criminal filings).  In other words, this article shows what the market for civil legal services really was in 2015, according to the Reports.

Table 16 of the 2015 Report contains the relevant data. In fiscal 2015, 101,112 civil matters were initiated in the District Courts of Colorado.  However, as was discussed in my prior article, 70,147 of these filings were ‘distraint warrant’ filings by the tax authority, which has relevance mostly for those of us practicing property tax appeals.  Therefore, those filings are subtracted here and only the remaining filings are relevant to this analysis: 30,965 civil matters.

Even this figure, 30,965, should be reduced further for this article. We will subtract Rule 120 filings, which constitute 8,165 (26.4%) of the civil actions filed.  Rule 120 filings are made as part of the public trustee foreclosure process.  While a public trustee foreclosure is a civil action, it is a specialty action that does not typically require the Court’s involvement beyond the Rule 120 motion itself.  Therefore, for purposes of determining percentages, the denominator in our fraction will be 22,800 civil actions, not 30,965.

“Not So Much:” Civil Filings Comprising the Fewest Filings, or about 4.2%

Some civil categories in Table 16 had 100 filings, or fewer, in 2015. Among these are Breach of Warranty (33), Counterclaims from County Court (100), which arise when a counterclaim exceeds the $15,000.00 jurisdictional limit and must, therefore, be promoted to District Court, Condemnation (95), Confirmation of Arbitration Award (46), Determination of Interests (34), Employment Discrimination (5), Goods Sold and Delivered (97), Liens (33), Landlord/Tennant matters (61), Property Damage cases (49), Protection Orders (17), Public Utility cases (6), Services Rendered (52), Sexual Harassment (4), Special District (74), Specific Performance (16), Unemployment Compensation (5), Wages (66), Workers Compensation (65), Wrongful death (64), and Wrongful death Motor Vehicle (27).  These 949 cases constitute 4.2% of all District Court cases filed in 2015 (not including distraint warrants or public trustee foreclosures).

I believe some of the low frequency of particular case filings here can be easily explained. For example, employment discrimination and sexual harassment claims are case types typically brought in the federal courts.  Likewise, protection orders and Landlord/Tennant matters are generally the province of Colorado’s County Courts, not District Courts.  Unemployment compensation matters are generally administrative matters adjudicated by the Colorado Department of Labor.  The low number of wage claims may arise because a typical wage claim is probably for, at most, a couple of months’ wages, which also makes such claims the province of Colorado’s County Courts (i.e., a claim that does not exceed $15,000.00).  I also believe that many Breach of Warranty and Services Rendered claims are subsumed under the ‘breach of contract’ type, discussed below.

The low frequency in some areas is, however, a surprise to this author. For example, the low number of wrongful death actions.  Perhaps that claim is rarely brought on its’ own and more frequently pled in the alternative in what is generally characterized as a ‘negligence’ action.  The low number of Arbitration Award confirmations is likewise interesting because the Colorado Court’s electronic filing system, known as “ICCES,” allows such actions to be filed only in District Court.  Perhaps arbitral awards are more prone to being paid by the respondent and therefore require less enforcement than a typical judgment would.   

The Middle of the Road: Case Types between 101 and 1,000 filings, or about 23% of Colorado Civil Law

Case types with more than 100 case filings, but fewer than 1,000, include County Court or Municipal Appeals (666), Declaratory Judgment actions (377), Judicial foreclosures (639), Forcible Entry and Detainer/Eviction (325), Foreign Judgments (491), Fraud suits (150), Injunctive Relief (351), Malpractice (212), Mechanics Lien (216), Motions to Approve Transfer of Structured Settlements (204), Negligence (450), Name Change (274), Note (217), Out of State Subpoenas (467), Petitions to Seal Criminal Convictions (358), Public Nuisance (212), Replevin (367), Rule 105 Quiet Title (450), Review – other local government (166), Rule 106 Writs of Contempt (285), and Writs of Habeas Corpus (222). By the numbers, these civil actions comprise 7,099 of the civil actions filed, or 31%.

The Most Frequent Civil Case Types Filed in Colorado: 65% of all Civil Litigation in Colorado    

Petitions to Seal Criminal Records are the largest single case type in Colorado (3,436).  Cases for money damages comprise 3,425 cases.  This is followed closely by Personal Injury – Motor Vehicle (2,974), and by generic Personal Injury cases (1,217).  Breach of contract cases amount to 2,520 cases.  The category ‘other’ picks up 1,160 other matters, which are not otherwise characterized.  The most frequently filed civil actions constitute 14,732 civil matters filed, or 65%, in the aggregate.  Personal injury (combined) amounts to 4,191 cases, or 18.4%.  Contract and money cases combined accounts for 5,945, or 26%.

Conclusions

The Reports contain a large amount of useful information. For small firms and solo practitioners in particular, knowing where the legal market actually is, in terms of what cases are being filed, can significantly help one’s marketing effort and website presentation.

For example, in developing litigation expertise in an area with relatively few annual case filings, such as public utility cases or condemnation actions, among others, it probably makes sense to invest in a significant marketing effort in order establish yourself as the preeminent expert in the field in order to capture a significant percentage of those cases. On the other hand, newcomers to areas with few civil case filings should carefully consider whether or not there is already an ensconced 800 pound gorilla-law-firm or expert within that space before investing heavily in those areas.

By the same token, all practitioners of civil law should probably know (or learn) how to file petitions to seal criminal records or criminal convictions as those two items are a large percentage of the civil legal marketplace. The same is probably true of the plain vanilla personal injury case or breach of contract case- everyone should learn how to do that at some point early in their career.

I hope this series of articles has been useful. I look forward to your comments, below.  Call me at (303) 757-3344 to discuss.  Thanks.