The Denver Post: Court orders to suppress lawsuits and criminal cases in Colorado, as well as the legal reasons behind them, are to be made public under a new set of criteria being considered by the state’s Judicial Branch.

If approved, the standards would apply to any case in which there is a request to keep information hidden from the public, although it’s unclear whether it would be mandatory or simply a recommendation.

“It could be a Chief Justice directive or merely guidance to the judges. That’s not been decided,” Court Administrator Christopher Ryan told The Post. “One you don’t have to follow; the other you do.”

The suggested changes are in response to a series of Denver Post stories that revealed how thousands of cases across the state were suppressed from public view, hidden behind judges’ orders to keep them that way.

The Post found that suppression orders and the lawyers’ requests that offered the reasons for the suppression are themselves suppressed from public inspection.

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