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COLORADO PRETRIAL PRACTICES
The Colorado Bail Book: A Defense Practitioner's Guide to Adult Pretrial Release. HB-1236, Best Practices in Bond Setting .
In 2018 NACDL Supplemented these materials with 2 video components: an overview of bail practices in Colorado and a panel discussion highlighting challenges and innovations for bail practices in rural communities.
View Colorado Bail Videos More on Pretrial Advocacy
COLORADO LITIGATION
In 2010 NACDL worked with the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar and the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition to overturn Colorado Revised Statute § 16-7-301(4) which required a defendant to meet with a prosecutor before being considered for appointment of counsel.
Under the statute, when charged with a misdemeanor, petty or traffic offense, an indigent defendant’s “application for appointment of counsel and the payment of the application fee shall be deferred until after the prosecuting attorney has spoken with the defendant.” The statute further required prosecuting attorney to “tell the defendant any offer that can be made based on the facts as known by the prosecuting attorney at that time” and permitted prosecutors to “engage in further plea discussions about the case,” all while the accused was without counsel. In fact, the statute placed the responsibility of advising the defendant they had “the right to . . . seek appointment of counsel” upon the prosecutor.
While the lawsuit challenging the statute as a violation of the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments was pending in the US District Court (Colorado Criminal Defense Bar v. Hickenlooper ), the Colorado legislature repealed the statute, eliminating the requirement an accused speak with the prosecutor before they are able to seek the appointment of counsel and appropriated $8 million dollars to hire additional public defenders to meet the increased workload.
More on Systemic Litigation
Colorado Public Defense in The Champion
Bright Spots in Public Defense: The Colorado Office of the Alternate Defense Counsel: Supporting Indigent Defense Through a Statewide Conflict Counsel System, by Kevin Bishop, Darren Cantor, Stacie Colling, Lindy Frolich, and Jonathan Rosen, The Champion , Jan/Feb. 2019
Learn About Interrogation Policies in this State
Featured Products
Pozner on Cross: The Chapter Method (7-Hours)
Pozner on Cross: The Chapter Method , is a 7-hour masterclass that teaches a structured approach that organizes cross examination into short, fact-based, story-driven chapters. The method enables lawyers to maintain control of the witness, secure key admissions, and present facts with clarity and precision. Designed for use under the stresses of trial, the course provides practical tools for writing and delivering effective cross examinations with confidence. The techniques of Chapter Method cross-examination work regardless of the field of practice, or the level of a lawyer’s experience.
It's Not Just Voir Dire: How to Communicate & Convince Juries
This program helps defense counsel to uncover juror beliefs, challenge biased jurors for cause, preserve credibility with judges, and build persuasive narratives for trial. You'll also explore cutting-edge research and emerging technology—from social science insights about race and bias in juries to new tools for focus groups and mock trials. Master your techniques in authenticity, storytelling, and emotional intelligence in the courtroom, while reinforcing foundational principles like the presumption of innocence and reasonable doubt throughout jury selection and trial.
Criminal Evidence Disclosure & Admissibility Handbook
This handbook covers a wide range of crucial topics, including defending against the admission of 404(b) evidence, challenging bad character evidence, and litigating the admissibility of expert testimony. It offers a deep dive into the requirements of Brady and Giglio and uncovering discovery violations and exculpatory evidence before trial. With dedicated sections on digital evidence, forensic analysis, informant disclosures, and suppression hearings, this guide arms defense attorneys with the tools necessary to combat unreliable or improperly admitted evidence.
Cross-Examination: Science & Techniques - 4th Edition
Considered the go-to authority for more than 30 years, Pozner and Dodd’s Cross-Examination: Science and Techniques has trained generations of trial attorneys to turn cross-examination into their most powerful courtroom weapon. Its Fourth Edition is now available. This first new edition in seven years adds important material on how to use opening statements to pre-sell your cross-examinations, change the focus of the case, and make your best chapters dominate deliberations—plus a full chapter on cross-examining the crying witness. This is the book that changed how cases are tried.
Defending Sexual Assault Cases: A Comprehensive Trial Manual
Defending Sexual Assault Cases: A Comprehensive Trial Manual is not another sex crimes book—it is a strategic operations plan for dismantling narrative-driven prosecutions, built around how jurors actually decide sex crime cases rather than procedural checklists. It explains the moral risk calculus jurors face, the emotional architecture behind verdicts, and how prosecutors win through narrative stacking rather than proof. Most importantly, it shows you how to give jurors a morally defensible path to acquittal.
Pozner's Red Book on Cross: Lessons in Advanced Cross-Examination
This compact handbook brings together over 20 of Larry Pozner’s most powerful cross-examination articles, covering core principles and advanced strategies for witness control, impeachment, chaptering, and framing reasonable doubt. Packed with scripting examples, real-world scenarios, and tactical insight, it shows how to press or pivot with purpose, drop weak points, and keep cross disciplined. Whether dismantling an officer’s account, challenging an eyewitness, or exposing investigative gaps, Pozner’s field manual delivers courtroom-ready tools to win.
Featured Events
24
Jun 2026
2026 West Coast White Collar Conference
Hotel Nikko, San Francisco, CA
29
Jul 2026
2026 Federal Sentencing CLE
05
Aug 2026
2026 Albert J. Krieger Annual Meeting of NACDL
The Vinoy Resort, St. Petersburg, FL
26
Aug 2026
2026 Making the Case for Life Seminar
The Roosevelt New Orleans, A Waldorf Astoria Hotel, New Orleans, LA
Public defense issues and developments in Colorado
In partnership with the Colorado Criminal Defense Institute and the Colorado State Public Defender and supported by a grant from the Bureau of Justice Assistance, in September 2015 NACDL published The Colorado Bail Book: A Defense Practitioner's Guide to Adult Pretrial Release. The Manual is designed to be a resource to aid Colorado defenders in building upon the legislative reforms to the state's bail practices enacted as part of HB-1236, Best Practices in Bond Setting.
