Chantel E. Contiguglia

Chantel E. Contiguglia was appointed to the First Judicial District Court, in Jefferson County, in January 2024. She presides over a mixed docket of criminal, civil and domestic relations matters. She previously served six years as a county court judge in Arapahoe County, where voters retained her in 2020 with 77.05 percent of the votes cast on the question: 218,288 yes and 65,015 no. Before that she spent more than ten years with the Colorado State Public Defender's Office.

She grew up in Walden, in Jackson County, earned a political science degree from Mesa State College and graduated from the University of Denver law school in 2006.

The First Judicial District Commission on Judicial Performance voted 10 to 0 that she meets performance standards. It reports a limited number of survey responses and writes: "Five appellate court judges responded to the survey and rated Judge Contiguglia high (4.0 out of 4.0)."

The commission writes that she "has been described as prepared, fair, consistent, and respectful with good judicial demeanor and temperament." It also writes: "Her case management was described as efficient; however it was noted her scheduling practices could be inflexible for trial and docket management, which has been perceived by some litigants to overlook practical needs of the parties." The commission writes that she received this feedback in her interim evaluation and that "since that time, there has been improvement."

The commission writes that her background "is predominantly criminal defense work, which is reflected in her acumen with criminal law" and that she is committed to increasing her proficiency in civil and domestic relations law by seeking out colleagues with that expertise and attending continuing legal education.