The Denver Gazette: For nearly two decades Colorado has quietly maintained two judicial systems: One that the public makes use of regularly, and the other a lesser known, almost secret variety relied on by the rich, famous and well-to-do.

Specifically for civil cases — the criminal justice system is unaffected — the systems, on paper, are designed to be virtually identical and indiscernible.

For the most part they are, except for a few key critical differences: One of them allows for the litigants to hire and pay for their own private judge, a retired jurist who earns tens of thousands more dollars than they ever could when their full-time job was on the public bench.

And the cases that end up before a private judge nearly always are conducted off the grid, far from public eyes or scrutiny, ensuring a level of secrecy not afforded to those without the means to pay for it.

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