Chapter 12 - § 12.10 • OTHER STATUTORY PRIVILEGES IN COLORADO

• Jurisdiction: Colorado

§ 12.10 • OTHER STATUTORY PRIVILEGES IN COLORADO

The clergy member privilege is codified at C.R.S. § 13-90-107(1)(c).

A privilege regarding communications made to public officers in official confidence is codified at C.R.S. § 13-90-107(1)(e). See People v. Dist. Ct., 568 P.2d 445, 44546 (Colo. 1977) (precluding testimony of deputy district attorney about conversations she had with the district attorney and a third attorney, who was later appointed as a special prosecutor to present information to the grand jury regarding defendant).

A privilege regarding confidential intermediaries who inspect adoption records is codified at C.R.S. § 13-90-107(1)(i).

According to C.R.S. § 13-22-307, a mediation privilege applies to a party, the mediator, or the mediation organization involved in a mediation or dispute resolution proceeding. The privilege concerns oral or written communications prepared or expressed for the purposes of, in the course of, or pursuant to any mediation services proceeding or dispute resolution proceeding. It does not "extend to all communications that may in some way or another be related to the mediation; the definition does not cover all communications made with an eye to resolving the dispute once parties have agreed to mediation . . . . Communications or negotiations that concern the dispute but are not connected to specific mediation services proceedings are not . . . protected as confidential . . . ." Yaekle v. Andrews, 195 P.3d 1101, 1109 (Colo. 2008) (holding that the privilege did not preclude the trial court from relying on communications concerning the mediation in determining that there was an enforceable settlement agreement between the parties).

The newsperson privilege, or Colorado Press Shield Law, provides that a newsperson cannot be compelled to disclose certain news information and is codified at C.R.S. § 13-90-119. The privilege does not cover news information that "has actually been published or broadcast through a medium of mass communication." C.R.S. § 13-90-119(2)(b); see Gordon v. Boyles, 9 P.3d 1106, 1121-22 (Colo. 2000) (refusing to apply the Colorado Press Shield Law because party claiming its protection was not acting in the capacity of newsperson); see also Miles v. Nat'l...