May 2016 Legislative Update

The 120-day legislative session came to a close the middle of May.  Local headlines touted it as one of the most unproductive sessions in recent history.  Indeed, a number of bills we had anticipated were never introduced and few of the bills we had been monitoring made it to the Governor’s desk.

This session resulted in a big change to Colorado liquor law with the passage of SB16-197 which phases in full strength beer, wine, and liquor sales in grocery stores.

Marijuana business also saw a change with the passage of SB16-40 allowing out-of-state investors beginning in 2017.

For us, a major disappointment was the failure to introduce a highly anticipated “compromise” package of construction defect reform bills.  The package was hope to include an informed consent bill, a litigation study bull, and an insurance-related bill. 

We had some small successes opposing the creation of a new civil action for intrusion of privacy with an electronic device (HB16-1213) and a bill proposing radical changes to the commissions evaluating state judicial performance which would have threatened the privacy of judges and independence of the judiciary (HB16-1235). 

Although we supported a change to make interest-rate on judgments market-based (SB16-184) the bill was postponed indefinitely.

With HB16-1057, we saw the “rule of seven” for calculating time based intervals extended to judicial proceedings under the Children’s Code.

With so many bills suffering from non-partisan support, there is little more to report.

For a more complete list of all legislation the Colorado Defense Lawyers Association was interested during the session, please visit codla.org and look for the legislative widget.