Thirteenth Judicial District
The Iyer Law Office LLC is pleased to announce that its founder and principal attorney has received a contract by the State of Colorado Judicial Branch to act as court appointed counsel for parents in Dependency and Neglect (D & N) cases for the 13th Judicial District.
The 13th Judicial District covers seven (7) counties - Kit Carson County (Burlington); Logan County (Sterling); Morgan County (Fort Morgan); Phillips County (Holyoke); Sedgwick County (Julesburg); Washington County (Akron); and Yuma County (Wray).
Thirteenth Judicial District Overview
The Thirteenth Judicial District encompasses all of Kit Carson, Logan, Morgan, Phillips, Sedgwick, Washington and Yuma Counties, namely all of northeastern Colorado. It is approximately the size of the state of Massachusetts. Its county seats are Burlington, Sterling, Fort Morgan, Holyoke, Julesburg, Akron and Wray.
The Thirteenth Judicial District serves a population of approximately 70,000 people. There are presently 3,648 cases filed annually in the district courts and 13,110 cases filed annually in the county courts. The caseload is the responsibility of four district judges and seven county judges.
The seven county court judges are responsible for traffic and misdemeanor matters in addition to civil cases that do not exceed the jurisdictional dollar amount of the county court. The bulk of the county court judges’ work is involved in the processing of traffic matters, domestic restraining orders and small civil claims. They also serve as district court magistrates for juvenile and mental health cases.
The four district court judges handle a varied caseload of domestic relations, felony criminal matters, juvenile cases (dependency and neglect and delinquency), probate proceedings, mental health matters, and civil filings which exceed the county court jurisdictional amount.
In addition to the district and county judges, there are approximately thirty-three support staff positions. These positions include clerks of court, division clerks, court clerks, court reporters, collection investigators, probation officers, court administrative officers and probation and administrative employees. Approximately fourteen employees are assigned to the probation department.
The filings in the district courts have been growing as of late in the area of criminal and juvenile delinquency cases. It is anticipated that this trend will continue, particularly with the case filings from a newly opened Department of Corrections facility in Sterling, and private detention facilities in Burlington and Brush.
