Coming to a Community Near You: The Court of Appeals Extended Outreach Program, 0417 COBJ, Vol. 46 No. 4 Pg. 69
| Author | Gilbert M. Román, J. |
Judges’ Corner
Gilbert M. Román, J.
Coming to a Community Near You: The Court of Appeals Extended Outreach Program
In 2016, the Colorado Court of Appeals embarked on a new statewide Extended Outreach program. It essentially blends three of the Court’s previously successful programs: (1) Courts in the Community, (2) District and Community Outreach, and (3) the Goldilocks presentation to elementary students. This article explains the new program and shows how it played out in a weeklong pilot program in Glenwood Springs (9th JD) and Steamboat Springs (14th JD).
Courts in the Community
Initiated by the Colorado Supreme Court and Court of Appeals on Law Day (May 1) 1986, Courts in the Community takes Colorado’s appellate courts into two local high schools to conduct real oral arguments. The program was developed to give high school students firsthand experience in how the judicial system works. Once the first high school is selected, a second high school (usually within three hours of the first high school) is chosen. After the two high schools are secured, the Court begins scheduling visits and programming in those high schools and their communities.
Courts in the Community is the anchor of the Extended Outreach program and is coordinated by Jon Sarché of the State Court Administrator’s Office.
District and Community Outreach
The Court of Appeals’ District Outreach program was initiated by Chief Judge Alan Loeb in 2015 to facilitate meetings between Court of Appeals judges and local judicial officers, court clerks, local bar associations, and members of the local Access to Justice Committee. Each Court of Appeals judge is a liaison to a particular judicial district. The Extended Outreach program incorporates this program by assuring that a district’s liaison judge is always on the Court of Appeals division that makes the extended outreach visit.
Goldilocks
Should Goldilocks be convicted of trespass in the Bear family home, or of theft for eating porridge while in the home? These questions are presented to fourth and fifth graders in mock trials put on by the students with assistance from Court of Appeals judges and law clerks. The mock trial is sandwiched between a presentation on the role of the judiciary and a...
To continue reading
Request your trial