Chapter 1 - § 1.10 • STIPULATIONS, ADMISSIONS, INTERROGATORIES, AND JUDICIAL NOTICE

• Jurisdiction: Colorado

§ 1.10 • STIPULATIONS, ADMISSIONS, INTERROGATORIES, AND JUDICIAL NOTICE

There are several means of introducing evidence at trial other than through the testimony of witnesses and the introduction of exhibits. Each of these requires thought and planning throughout the pretrial process.

§ 1.10.1—Stipulations

As part of the pretrial procedure, parties are required to confer in an effort to identify any common ground with respect to the facts of the case. Pursuant to C.R.C.P. 16 and F.R.C.P. 16, an agreement reached by the parties as to a particular fact and noted for the record at the pretrial conference will be binding on the parties unless the court relieves a party from its stipulation for good cause shown. Pub. Serv. Co. v. Bd. of Water Works, 831 P.2d 470, 481 (Colo. 1992). When the parties stipulate to facts, the facts are conclusive, and the jury will be instructed by the court to accept them as true.

You may request that the other party stipulate to any fact that you think is not in dispute. Parties are less likely to stipulate to facts than they are to the admissibility of exhibits, and parties will rarely stipulate to facts going to the heart of a case. Nonetheless, stipulations are a good method of shortening the trial and avoiding unnecessary calling of witnesses.

A word of caution — even when the other party has agreed to stipulate to certain facts that are favorable to you, consider the effect that the stipulation will have on your overall presentation to the jury. Opposing counsel will often seek to have you stipulate to facts that are good for your case in order to lessen their impact on the jury. For example, opposing counsel will often stipulate to the qualifications of your expert, knowing that your expert will ultimately be qualified, in the hope that it will diminish the impact that the expert's testimony will have on the jury. However, you will want the jury to see how qualified your expert is — hearing opposing counsel stipulate that your expert is qualified is far less compelling than hearing about the level of his or her qualifications (especially if they exceed those of the opposition's expert). Similarly, parties often seek to stipulate to testimony that they know will have a significant emotional impact on juries. If portraying the emotion of your witness is important to your overall trial presentation, do not agree to the stipulation.

In some instances, the parties may stipulate that certain witnesses would make certain testimony...