Sara Garrido

Sara Garrido, appointed to the Jefferson County Court in April 2020, hears a docket that is mostly civil, with small claims cases making up the rest. Many of her cases involve parties without lawyers and emotional issues such as evictions and contract disputes.

She earned a nursing degree from the University of Miami and worked as an ICU nurse before earning her law degree at the University of Colorado School of Law. She was a public defender in Jefferson County for 12 years, then opened a solo practice in criminal, juvenile, and dependency and neglect law. She serves on the Judicial Discipline Commission, the Access to Justice Housing Subcommittee and the Housing Forms Subcommittee. Voters retained her in 2022 with 71.62 percent of the votes cast on the question: 158,117 yes and 62,650 no.

The commission writes that she "meets or exceeds performance standards in all categories under review."

The commission reports that survey results "describe her as able to show compassion to parties while still following the law and issuing fair rulings." It writes: "She is described as knowledgeable, decisive, patient, and highly organized." According to the commission, she has improved her knowledge of eviction law and procedure "to the point where she is consulted by other judges in the state on evictions issues."

She and her staff give parties written instructions on what to expect in court, and she uses Webex to make hearings accessible. Her goals for the next review period include continued judicial education and court procedures that show fairness to both sides when only one side has a lawyer.