Colorado Civil Jury Instructions: Rule 51.1, Deadlines, and Appeals

Colorado’s civil jury instructions are the state’s official pattern instructions, published as Colorado Jury Instructions–Civil (CJI-Civ) and posted for free on the Colorado Judicial Branch website. Under Rule 51.1 of the Colorado Rules of Civil Procedure, a trial judge “shall use such instructions as are contained in Colorado Jury Instructions (CJI) as are applicable to the evidence and the prevailing law.”¹ The Committee on Pattern Civil Jury Instructions updates the collection regularly to track new statutes and case law.²

Where to Find Them and What They Cover

The current edition is downloadable chapter by chapter in Word and PDF from the Judicial Branch website at no cost.² The Word files matter for practitioners because most model instructions contain bracketed placeholders that need to be filled in with case-specific facts before filing.

The chapters are organized by subject. Some of the ones you will use most often:

Chapter 6 – Damages for injuries to persons or property
Chapter 9 – Negligence (general concepts)
Chapter 10 – Wrongful death
Chapter 12 – Premises liability
Chapter 15 – Professional liability
Chapter 30 – Contracts

The full collection is much broader, covering everything from witness credibility and burden of proof to product liability and governmental immunity.² Because the pattern instructions are revised on a rolling basis, verify you are pulling the current version. Outdated language can reference repealed statutes or superseded standards.

Why Rule 51.1 Matters

Rule 51.1 is mandatory, not advisory. If a pattern instruction fits the evidence and the law, the judge must use it. The rule allows a departure in only two situations: when no CJI instruction addresses the subject, or when the facts or a change in the law make the pattern instruction inappropriate. Even then, the substitute must follow the CJI format as closely as possible.¹

That mandatory posture cuts both ways. A party proposing an on-point CJI instruction has strong footing, because the court cannot cast it aside for homegrown wording. A party asking the court to depart from CJI carries the burden of showing why the pattern language does not fit the case.

Drafting Proposed Instructions

Each proposed instruction begins with a standard case caption and cites the specific CJI chapter and instruction number. A basic negligence claim, for example, uses Instruction 9:1 for the elements the jury must find.

Most of the actual drafting work sits in the brackets. Model instructions contain bracketed placeholders where the drafter inserts party names, dates, locations, and the particular conduct at issue. A bracket left blank or filled with the wrong party’s name can confuse the jury or misstate the law.

Every CJI instruction is accompanied by two reference sections that should be read before proposing it:

Notes on Use explains when the instruction is appropriate and identifies the factual triggers that make it relevant.
Source and Authority cites the statutes and case law that support the instruction.

Reviewing both is how you confirm that the evidence actually presented at trial supports giving the instruction. A well-prepared set of proposed instructions shows the court on the face of the filing why each one belongs in the case.

Filing Deadline and the Charging Conference

Colorado Rule of Civil Procedure 16(d) requires the parties to exchange, confer on, and file their proposed jury instructions and verdict forms no later than three days before trial, unless the court sets a different deadline.³ Many judges impose an earlier deadline in a case management order, so read the scheduling order at the start of the case rather than counting backward from the trial date at the end.

Before the instructions reach the jury, the court holds an instruction conference (also called a charging conference). The judge and counsel work through each proposed instruction, resolve wording disputes, and settle the final set. Rule 51 requires the judge to give counsel the finalized instructions with enough time to raise any remaining objections before they are read aloud.⁴ After closing arguments, the judge reads the final instructions to the jury in the courtroom, and jurors take a written copy into deliberations.

Verdict Forms and the Comparative Fault Wrinkle

Instructions do not stand alone. They work with the verdict form the jury uses to record findings. Chapter 4 of the CJI covers general verdicts, special verdicts, and a model unified verdict form developed by the committee. When the court uses a special verdict, which asks the jury to answer specific factual questions, the instructions must define every legal term used in those questions.⁵ Misalignment between the instructions and the verdict form is a common source of post-trial problems. If the instructions describe three elements but the form asks about two, the jury has no way to apply the law correctly.

Colorado applies modified comparative fault. The jury allocates fault as percentages of 100 percent among the plaintiff, the defendants, and any designated nonparties. A plaintiff whose share is 50 percent or more recovers nothing, and the CJI negligence instructions build that threshold into the language the jury hears.⁶

One asymmetry surprises people. The jury is told the effect of its finding on the plaintiff’s fault versus the defendant’s fault, but it is not told the effect of its allocation among multiple defendants. The legislature required this to keep jurors from adjusting percentages to engineer a particular financial split among defendants.⁶

Damages Instructions and the Cap the Jury Never Hears

The CJI addresses both economic damages (medical bills, lost income, repair costs) and noneconomic damages (pain, suffering, impairment of quality of life). Jurors receive instructions explaining what falls into each category and how to evaluate the evidence.

Colorado caps noneconomic damages in most civil cases. The baseline cap is $250,000, which can rise to $500,000 if the court finds clear and convincing evidence supporting a higher award. The caps adjust for inflation on a regular schedule. The jury never learns about them. The statute prohibits disclosing the limit to jurors, so the court applies it after the verdict but before entering judgment. A jury might award $800,000 in noneconomic damages and see it reduced to the statutory maximum in the final judgment.

Specialized areas have their own damages instructions. Medical malpractice cases, for example, must use the special verdict forms in Instruction 15:15 to comply with the Health Care Availability Act.⁵

Preserving Objections for Appeal

Rule 51(b) is unforgiving. Every objection to a jury instruction must be raised before the instructions go to the jury. A party who stays silent at the instruction conference and then complains on appeal will not be heard unless the error rises to plain error.⁴

To preserve an objection, state the specific ground on the record. “We object to Instruction 12” is not enough. Identify what is wrong and what the correct statement of the law should be. The appellate court will consider only the grounds actually stated at trial. The same rule applies when you want an instruction the court refuses to give: request it, get a ruling, and state your objection on the record. Without that foundation, the issue is gone.

How Appellate Courts Review Instructional Error

Colorado appellate courts review jury instructions on two levels. Whether the instructions as a whole correctly stated the law is reviewed de novo, without deference to the trial judge. Whether the court should have given or declined a particular instruction is reviewed for abuse of discretion.⁷

When a preserved error is found, the appellate court asks whether it actually affected the outcome. An error that did not substantially influence the verdict or affect the fairness of the proceedings is harmless, and the verdict stands. When an instruction omits or misdescribes an element of a claim, the review tightens: the court will reverse unless it is confident beyond a reasonable doubt that the mistake did not contribute to the verdict.⁷

Errors that were not preserved get plain error review only. The party must show the error was both obvious and substantial, meaning it contradicted a clear statutory command or a well-settled legal principle. That bar is deliberately high, and it fails far more often than it succeeds. Raise every objection at the charging conference. Waiting to see how the verdict lands before deciding whether to complain about the instructions almost never works.

1
Colorado Judicial Branch. Colorado Rules of Civil Procedure Relating to Jury Instructions
2
Colorado Judicial Branch. Pattern Civil Jury Instructions Committee
3
Colorado Judicial Branch. Colorado Rules of Civil Procedure
4
Colorado General Assembly. Colorado Rules of Civil Procedure
5
Colorado Judicial Branch. Colorado Civil Jury Instructions – Chapter 4 Jury Deliberations and Verdict Forms
6
Colorado Judicial Branch. Colorado Civil Jury Instructions – Chapter 9 Negligence General Concepts
7
Colorado Judicial Branch. Colorado Appellate Opinion – Instructional Error Standards