Recent Articles

Colorado Civil Justice League applauds a unanimous decision by the Colorado Supreme Court which will benefit both employers and employees.

The decision in Lucht's Concrete vs. Horner (Case No. 09SC627) reversed a Court of Appeals ruling that held that continued employment is not adequate consideration for a noncompetition agreement once an employee has been hired.

"We find no distinction between a decision to agree to a noncompetition agreement offered at the initial hiring period and a decision to agree" after employment has begun, wrote Justice Allison Eid. 

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Vote for the Most Ridiculous Lawsuit of the Month for May!

 

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An op-ed column in the April 17 Pueblo Chieftain by CCJL’s Mark Hillman apparently got under the skin of Colorado Trial Lawyers Association vice president James M. Croshal, whose letter to the editor displayed tactics with which defendants against frivolous lawsuits are all too familiar.

After claiming that the op-ed was “inaccurate and untrue,” Croshal engages mostly in argument and identifies only one “fact” as untrue: 

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Op-Ed published in Colorado Springs Gazette on April 21. 

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To hear trial lawyers and their anti-business enablers tell it, the only thing that prevents Colorado employers from literally chaining workers to their desks is the "right to sue" their dastardly bosses.  In this fantasy world, trial lawyers never bring frivolous lawsuits and fired employees never file dubious claims motivated but grudges against their former employers.

In fact, listening to testimony recently on Senate Bill 72 (sponsored by Sen. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora, and Rep. Claire Levy, D-Boulder), the uninitiated could be forgiven for wondering — given the obvious virtue presumed by the bills' supporters — why the sponsors don’t propose a new law that simply accepts employees' claims at face value, dispenses with the inconvenience of a trial, and orders those heartless employers to immediately deposit funds into plaintiffs' bank accounts.

Maybe that’s on their agenda for next year. 

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Despite the sponsor's effort to find common ground with the bill's critics, Democrats on the Senate Local Government Committee today sided with trial lawyers and against doctors, families and Colorado businesses to kill House Bill 1106 on a 3-2 party-line vote.

Presented to overturn a bizarre 4-3 decision by the Colorado Supreme Court in November 2010, HB 1106 clarified how medical costs should be calculated in personal injury cases.  The court's majority found that injured plaintiffs were entitled to "billed" medical costs -- even when the billed amount greatly exceeded the amount ultimately paid.  A survey by Colorado Civil Justice League of recent cases found that billed amounts sometimes exceeded the paid amount by two, four or, in one case, eight times. 

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After clearing the House of Representatives on a bipartisan 37-27 vote, House Bill 1106 (sponsored by Rep. Bob Gardner, R-Colorado Springs, and Sen. Ellen Roberts, R-Durango) is slated for a hearing in the Senate Local Government Committee on Tuesday, March 29, at 2 p.m.

The curious committee assignment, the prerogative of Senate President Brandon Shaffer (D-Longmont), evoked considerable speculation among state capitol observers who debated whether the assignment amounted to a lifeline, a death sentence or a "jump ball" in the five-member committee which does not ordinarily consider bills pertaining to civil law.

For Sen. Roberts, the bill sponsor, Local Government is familiar territory — a committee on which she serves.  The committee is chaired by Sen. Joyce Foster (D-Denver) and also includes vice chair Sen. Jeanne Nicholson (D-Black Hawk), Sen. Irene Aguilar (D-Denver) and Sen. Bill Cadman (R-Colorado Springs). 

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(Published in the Denver Business Journal) 

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