Colorado’s progress towards effective representation in municipal courts

Pleading the Sixth: Colorado enacts the Fairness & Transparency in Municipal Court Act, banning flat fee contracts (in most instances) and ensuring sufficient time for attorneys to meet clients to prepare arguments for bond in all municipal courts.

On April 27, 2026, Governor Jared Polis signed the Fairness & Transparency in Municipal Court Act into law, representing a multi-year effort in the state legislature to ensure the right to effective representation for indigent defendants charged with jailable municipal offenses.  HB1134 ensures the right to appointed counsel for all in-custody defendants at arraignment in municipal court and requires the court and jail to give counsel access to their client before the hearing with sufficient time to prepare an argument for bond. The act prevents municipal courts from sentencing a person to jail if the court is not of record. And it expands the ban on flat fee contracts to all municipal court cases, with an exception for initial appearances where counsel may be paid a flat fee if that fee is the same or higher than the state’s rate for non-municipal courts.

History of municipal indigent defense reform

The Fairness & Transparency in Municipal Court Act builds on reforms begun in 2016. Prior to these efforts, Colorado’s municipal indigent defense system looked very similar to many municipal courts across the country with little to no state oversight or accountability. Although Colorado has a state funded and administered State Public Defender and Office of Alternate Defense Counsel for all non-municipal court representation, Colorado’s municipal courts routinely denied indigent defendants their right to counsel. 

In 2016, Colorado established a defendant’s right to counsel in municipal court, beginning at the defendant’s initial appearance. Steady progress was made the next year, when Colorado created a notification system to alert courts when municipal defendants are detained, and again three years later, when the state set standards for municipal indigent defense providers.

Then, in 2024, Colorado banned flat fee contracts for municipal indigent defense services in domestic violence cases. And in 2025, Colorado legislators passed a bill similar to HB1134, which also ensured consistency in sentencing decisions for identical state and municipal offenses. However, Governor Polis vetoed this bill because two cases were pending before the Colorado Supreme Court on the sentencing issue, and the Court ultimately resolved that issue later that year, paving the way for passage of HB1134 this year.

There is no right to counsel exemption for municipal courts

Colorado’s reforms are a great reminder that the Sixth Amendment right to effective counsel is a state responsibility under the Fourteenth Amendment. While states may delegate the right to counsel responsibilities to local governments, the state must guarantee that those governments are capable of providing adequate representation and are doing so. 6AC congratulates Colorado on its passage of HB1134 and its sustained reform of municipal indigent defense services.