Colorado's highest court has tightened the rules on how anti-SLAPP rulings travel through the courts, holding that a key slice of the state's 2019 statute cannot be used to send final county-court anti-SLAPP judgments straight to the Colorado Court of Appeals. The Monday ruling in Hinds v. Foreman cleans up a procedural snag that had left judges and lawyers guessing about where to go when a county judge grants a special motion to dismiss.
The court held that portions of the statute "are unconstitutional to the extent that they authorize the court of appeals to review a final judgment of a county court," according to the slip opinion posted by the Colorado Judicial Branch. The opinion explains that sections 13-20-1101 and 13-4-102.2 clash with Article VI, Section 17 of the Colorado Constitution, which leaves appellate review of final county-court judgments to the district courts or the Supreme Court.
Rebecca Hinds sued her neighbor, Corrine Foreman-Rash, in Chaffee County in 2023, alleging Foreman falsely told police that Hinds planned to manufacture a domestic-violence complaint, according to the Denver Gazette. County Court Judge Diana C. Bull granted Foreman's special motion to dismiss under the anti-SLAPP statute, and Hinds appealed, prompting a Court of Appeals panel to spot a jurisdictional problem and kick the issue up to the state Supreme Court.
What the ruling changes
The Supreme Court concluded that the Court of Appeals does not have jurisdiction to review a final county-court judgment that grants an anti-SLAPP dismissal and sent the case back with instructions to dismiss Hinds's appeal, according to the Colorado Judicial Branch. The justices said the Court of Appeals can still review anti-SLAPP orders that do not end the case and conceded that this carve-out "is not an elegant solution," pointedly leaving any effort to create a uniform appeals scheme to lawmakers.
Procedural and legal implications
The Supreme Court also gave Hinds permission to refile her appeal in the district court, concluding she could not reasonably have predicted the correct forum, the Denver Gazette reported. That safety valve may cushion the blow for parties who chose the wrong court in the past, but going forward, most final county-court anti-SLAPP dismissals will have to travel first to the district courts.
Statute and next steps
Under Colorado law, appeals from final county-court judgments "shall be taken to the district court," according to Justia, summarizing Colo. Rev. Stat. 13-6-310(1). The decision is likely to push attorneys and trial judges to scrutinize whether a dismissal truly ends the case and could nudge legislators to revisit the appeals framework if they want a single, predictable path.
What comes next
Observers say the ruling sharpens the roadmap for anti-SLAPP battles in county court while leaving the broader policy choices to the General Assembly, which the court openly suggested might craft a cleaner system, according to reporting by the Colorado Springs Gazette. For now, parties will have to make a quick call on whether a county order is truly final and, if it is, head to the district court instead of the Court of Appeals.
The case, Hinds v. Foreman, No. 24SC698, trims back how anti-SLAPP dismissals from county courts climb the appeals ladder while signaling that any broader fix will have to come from lawmakers.
