The Civil Litigator
| Jurisdiction | Colorado,United States |
| Citation | Vol. 8 No. 12 Pg. 2418 |
| Pages | 2418 |
| Publication year | 1979 |
1979, December, Pg. 2418. The Civil Litigator
Trial lawyers recognize the need for discipline. This seems to be one of the clearest messages of last year's Denver Bar Association Judicial Survey.(fn1) It is a message that should be taken to heart.
The 1978 DBA Judicial Survey was a poll of trial lawyers about judges' capabilities in an attempt to inform the public of the quality of the Denver judiciary. It provides valuable information to the judiciary in the absence of the theoretical feedback provided by constituents and opponents in a contested election setting.
Twenty-four specific questions were asked about judicial performance and attitudes. The one on which the judges, as a group, scored the lowest asked whether the judge "imposes sanctions commensurate with the severity of an attorney's failure to comply with state and local rules of procedure. "(fn2) Of the thirty-five Denver judges, only one had as many as 30 percent of the lawyers who would strongly agree that the judge imposed such sanctions and only six judges had 20 percent who would strongly agree. Not one judge had as many as two-thirds of the responding lawyers who would either "strongly agree" or "agree" that the judge imposed commensurate sanctions.(fn3) Recall that the question was not whether the judges imposed harsh or strict sanctions, but whether the judges imposed "commensurate" sanctions.
These figures suggest that lawyers recognize the need to impose sufficient sanctions and wish to have rules enforced more regularly or more strictly. This is not to imply that harsh punishments are sought for every defalcation, however minor, but generally lawyers are trained to believe that rules are either meant to be followed and enforced, or the rules should not exist at all. With the vastly increasing burden of litigation that is being imposed upon our judicial system and society at large, it behooves the courts, attorneys and litigants to require adherence to procedural rules which have been designed, by and large, to expedite the processing of each case. The failure of one party or his attorney to abide by these basic "traffic" rules not only injures the progress of his case but impedes the smooth operation of the entire system.
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