1976, February, Pg. 195. From our Readers.

5 Colo.Law. 195

Colorado Lawyer

1976.

1976, February, Pg. 195.

From our Readers

195From our ReadersGentlemen:In the article on Certification of Trial Attorneys in the Lawyer of November, 1975, there appears a request for comments on the proposed scheme for certification of Trial Attorneys in Colorado. It is in response to that request that I submit this comment.

The article sets forth three schemes for certification of trial lawyers, exemplified by the states of California, New Mexico and Colorado. The California method, requiring "lengthy and detailed written examinations as a basis for certification." reflects that state's craving for regulation, and was wisely rejected without comment by the aforesaid article.

The New Mexico self-declaration method was also rejected without comment, and I believe unwisely. This method requires essentially that a lawyer declare himself to be a trial specialist.

Rather than accept either the California or the New Mexico method, the Colorado Bar Association proposes a scheme which I will refer to as the "popularity" method. The aforesaid article stated that "Our committee felt that. . . skills in advocacy can only be objectively determined by seeking the opinion of trial court judges, opposing counsel, associate counsel and other judges or commissioners." That the subjective opinion of the applicant as to his advocacy skills would not be "objective" is clear enough. But how is it that the subjective opinion of another person as to the advocacy skills of the applicant is an objective opinion? By what principle of logic or experience is it true that a subjective opinion as to X's skills by someone other than X is an objective opinion? I submit that human experience shows that such opinions are subject to the same subjectivity, bias, and ill-motive as are one's opinions on one's self.

If the proposed method becomes the rule in Colorado, what we will have after a few years of operation is a club, the membership of which will be determined by the membership. An applicant for membership in the club will face the same problem inherent in application to any other private club: Whether the applicant has cultivated the enmity of any member.

What applicant for trial specialist certification will not think twice before appealing a decision of his local trial judge when he knows that this local trial...