S1, E4: Judge Juan Villasenor

About a year into his tenure on the bench, Judge Juan Villasenor of the Eighth Judicial District of the state of Colorado hadn’t given much thought to a quirk in his state’s rules of civil procedure that allows jurors to discuss a case during trial. Then an attorney in a medical malpractice suit filed a motion seeking to bar deliberations before closing arguments. That sparked a sort of research project for the judge, who learned all about the history of the practice in Colorado and in other states. He then sought to educate other judges about the benefits of allowing jurors to deliberate as a trial progresses and about another Colorado rule that allows jurors to ask questions of witnesses. He wrote in Judicature magazine praising both unusual practices. On this month’s episode of Approach The Bench, we asked Judge Villasenor about how those practices play out in his courtroom, and about the lessons learned during his relatively young judicial career.