Colo. Const. art. VI § 19 - Laws relating to courts - uniform

• Library: Colorado Constitution
• Edition: prefLabel,label,title,shortLabel
• Currency: Current through 11/8/2022 Election
• Citation: Colo. Const. art. VI § 19

All laws relating to state courts shall be general and of uniform operation throughout the state, and except as hereafter in this section specified the organization, jurisdiction, powers, proceedings, and practice of all courts of the same class, and the force and effect of the proceedings, judgments and decrees of such courts severally shall be uniform. County courts may be classified or graded as may be provided by law, and the organization, jurisdiction, powers, proceedings, and practice of county courts within the same class or grade, and the force and effect of the proceedings, judgments and decrees of county courts in the same class or grade shall be uniform; provided, however, that the organization and administration of the county court of the city and county of Denver shall be as provided in the charter and ordinances of the city and county of Denver.

Cite as Colo. Const. art. VI § 19

Source:

L. 61: Entire article R&RE, effective January 12, 1965, see L. 63, p. 1053.

Editor's Note:

This section is similar to § 28 as it existed prior to 1961.

ANNOTATION

Law reviews. For comment on Holland v. McAuliffe appearing below, see 28 Rocky Mt. L. Rev. 437 (1956).

Annotator's note. Since this section is substantially the same as former § 28 of this article, relevant cases construing § 28 have been included in the annotations to this section.

Purpose of section. The purpose in framing this section was to have all laws thereafter adopted in relation to courts general and of uniform operation throughout the state; also to require that statutes providing for the organization and defining the jurisdiction, practice or procedure of courts of the same class or grade, be so drawn as to secure to such courts an organization, jurisdiction, practice and procedure in all respects similar. Rogers v. People, 9 Colo. 450, 12 P. 843 (1886).

This section was not intended to inhibit the passage of statutes entirely upon other subjects, and sanctioned by other constitutional provisions, which, however, might incidentally and remotely operate to disturb, for the time being, the territorial uniformity of jurisdiction possessed by courts of the same class or grade. Rogers v. People, 9 Colo. 450, 12 P. 843 (1886); People v. Johnson, 987 P.2d 855 (Colo. App. 1998).

The restrictive language of this section does not require uniformity in all laws, but, rather, requires uniformity only in laws relating to the "organization, jurisdiction, powers, proceedings, and practice of all courts of the same class". Thus, this section has been applied only in situations dealing with the uniformity of burdens and rights in courts of the same class. People v. Johnson, 987 P.2d 855 (Colo. App. 1998).