CJD 12-01

Chief Justice Directive 12-01 — Public Domain Citation Format for Colorado Supreme Court and Colorado Court of Appeals Cases

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Chief Justice Directive 12-01
SUPREME COURT OF COLORADO
OFFICE OF THE CHIEF JUSTICE
PUBLIC DOMAIN CITATION FORMAT FOR COLORADO SUPREME COURT
AND COLORADO COURT OF APPEALS CASES
Given the increasing amount of legal research being conducted via the internet and other
electronic resources and the desire to promote equal access to Colorado’s system of justice, this
Chief Justice Directive establishes a public domain citation format that will support the use of
Colorado case law in both book and electronic formats.
Legal practitioners and self-represented parties will be permitted—but not required—to
use the public domain citation format instead of citing to the Pacific Reporter. 	Irrespective of
which citation format is used, a parallel citation to the other format is also not required.
Beginning January 1, 2012, the Clerk of the Colorado Supreme Court and the Clerk of
the Colorado Court of Appeals shall assign to all opinions announced for publication a citation
that shall include:
1. 	The calendar year in which the opinion is announced;
2. 	Followed by the court designator “CO” for published opinions announced by the
Colorado Supreme Court, or followed by the court designator “COA” for published
opinions announced by the Court of Appeals; and
3. 	Followed by a consecutive Arabic numeral, beginning in each new calendar year with
the number “1”; for example: “2012 CO 1” for the first published opinion announced
by the Colorado Supreme Court in 2012, and “2012 COA 1” for the first published
opinion announced by the Colorado Court of Appeals in 2012.
This public domain citation shall appear on the title page of each published opinion
announced by the Supreme Court and by the Court of Appeals. 	All publishers of Colorado
Supreme Court and Colorado Court of Appeals materials are requested to include this public
domain citation within the heading of each Colorado opinion they publish on or after January 1,
2012. In addition:
Numbered paragraphs. 	Beginning with the first paragraph of text, each paragraph in
every published opinion shall be numbered consecutively beginning with a “¶” symbol followed
by an Arabic numeral—beginning with the number “1”—flush with the left margin, opposite the
first word of the paragraph. Paragraph numbers shall continue consecutively throughout the text
of the majority opinion and on through any concurrence or dissent. 	Footnotes and paragraphs
within footnotes shall not be numbered, nor shall markers, captions, headings, or numerated titles
that merely divide sections of opinions. 	Block-indented, single-spaced portions of a paragraph
shall not be numbered as a separate paragraph. 	All publishers of Colorado Supreme Court and
Colorado Court of Appeals materials are requested to include these paragraph numbers in each
opinion they publish.

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Unpublished opinions. Opinions that are not designated for official publication pursuant
to C.A.R. 35(f) shall not be assigned a public domain citation.
Modification, revision, or other substantive amendment. In the case of opinions that
are modified, revised, or otherwise substantively amended by subsequent order of the Supreme
Court or of the Court of Appeals, the public domain citation of the modified, revised, or
amended opinion shall be the same as the original public domain citation but followed by the
letter “M”; for example, “2012 CO 1M” in the case of a modified Colorado Supreme Court
opinion, and “2012 COA 1M” in the case of a modified Colorado Court of Appeals opinion. In
the event an opinion is modified, revised, or otherwise substantively amended more than once,
the public domain citation of any additional modified, revised, or amended opinion shall be the
same as the original public domain citation but designated with the letter “M” followed by a
hyphen and the appropriate Arabic numeral; for example: “2012 CO 1M-2” in the case of a
Colorado Supreme Court opinion modified a second time, and “2012 CO 1M-3” in the case of a
Colorado Supreme Court opinion modified a third time, and so on.
Withdrawn, vacated, and reissued opinions. In the case of opinions that are withdrawn
or vacated by a subsequent order of the Supreme Court or of the Court of Appeals, the public
domain citation of the withdrawing or vacating order shall be the same as the original public
domain citation but followed by the letter “W”; for example, “2012 CO 1W” in the case of a
withdrawn or vacated Colorado Supreme Court opinion, and “2012 COA 1W” in the case of a
withdrawn or vacated Colorado Court of Appeals opinion. In addition, the withdrawn or vacated
opinion shall be removed from the electronic database of opinions maintained by the Supreme
Court, and all publishers of Colorado Supreme Court and Colorado Court of Appeals materials
are requested to remove withdrawn or vacated opinions from their electronic databases. 	An
opinion that is reissued in place of a withdrawn or vacated opinion shall be assigned the next
consecutive number appropriate to the date on which the reissued opinion is announced.
Examples of proper public domain citation format. The public domain citation format
applies to published opinions announced by the Colorado Supreme Court and the Colorado Court
of Appeals on or after January 1, 2012. The following examples are not real cases and are used
for illustrative purposes only:
Colorado Supreme Court:
Primary citation:
Smith v. Jones, 2012 CO 22.
Primary citation with pinpoint citation:
Smith v. Jones, 2012 CO 22, ¶¶ 13–14.
Subsequent citation with pinpoint citation:
Smith, ¶¶ 13–14.
Id. citation with pinpoint citation:
Id. at ¶¶ 13–14.

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Colorado Court of Appeals:
Primary citation:
Jones v. Smith, 2012 COA 35.
Primary citation with pinpoint citation:
Jones v. Smith, 2012 COA 35, ¶¶ 44–45.
Subsequent citation with pinpoint citation:
Jones, ¶¶44–45.
Id. citation with pinpoint citation:
Id. at ¶¶44–45.
Done at Denver, Colorado this 	3rd day of January, 2012.
/s/
Michael L. Bender, Chief Justice

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Verbatim from the official publication; the only normalization is removal of the publisher's page headers. Verify against the official source for filing-critical use — court publications change without notice.