COURT News:

SANTA FE – A court procedural rule to speed up the resolution of criminal cases in Los Alamos, Rio Arriba and Santa Fe counties will take effect for new cases in the First Judicial District Court starting in January.

The implementation date in 2026 provides additional time for courts and judicial partners to prepare for the change.

The state Supreme Court issued an order today to establish the case management pilot program, which provides deadlines for moving all but the most highly complex cases to trial in the district court within seven to 10 months. The rule will not apply to pending criminal cases. It becomes effective for cases filed on or after Jan. 1, 2026.

Click here to view the case management rule.

Reducing Delays

“Reducing delays in criminal cases strengthens our justice system,” Chief Justice David K. Thomson said. “This new set of procedural deadlines will help deliver timely justice to those accused of crimes, the victims of crime, their families and the public. They deserve nothing less.”

First District Chief Judge Bryan Biedscheid said, “Our judges are committed to ensuring the new system fairly and efficiently provides justice for the people of the First Judicial District.”

How it works

Judges already have to set scheduling deadlines as a normal part of every case. Traditionally, judges set a trial date and deadlines leading up to that for procedural matters such as discovery and motions. The new rule simply standardizes this practice across a judicial district so that all prosecutors and defense attorneys are required to follow the same general time standards.

The district court establishes an overarching expectation that criminal cases – based on the nature of the individual case – will go to trial within a certain amount of time. The case management rule establishes a uniform time frame for resolving cases and, to meet that goal, provide deadlines for the many steps along the way to trial, such as the exchange of evidence by the prosecution and defense.

Cases will be assigned to one of three tracks with deadlines for the procedural steps leading to trial, such as the disclosure of evidence and submitting pretrial motions. Judges issue a scheduling order after hearing arguments from both sides and considering the complexity of the case, including the number of expected witnesses and time needed to address issues involving evidence.

Under the new rule:

• The simplest criminal cases go to trial within 210 days –about seven (7) months – of the charged person initially entering a plea. These are considered track 1 cases.
• Trials start within 300 days – about 10 months – for most other cases. These are track 2 cases.
• There is no fixed time limit for trial for cases of “unusually high complexity” — those with a high number of witnesses or a great amount of scientific evidence. These are track 3 cases, and current procedural rules will continue to apply for these cases.

Attorneys remain free to ask for additional time in a particular case to address circumstances unique to that case, and judges remain free to grant extensions. Under the new rule, a court can extend the trial date upon a showing of good cause: up to 30 days for a track 1 case and 45 days for a track 2 case.

District courts in Bernalillo, Doña Ana, Taos, Union and Colfax counties (the Second, Third and Eighth Judicial Districts) follow similar limits for criminal cases although their case management rules require the most complex cases to go to trial within about 15 months.

In other district courts, there is no specific time limit in which a criminal trial must be held. District courts handle felony cases. In magistrate courts across the state, trials must start within six months for traffic and misdemeanor cases.

Commitment to improve

“Changing how we do business will challenge judges, court staff, prosecutors, defense attorneys and law enforcement, but this new approach will improve the justice system if we commit to meeting the challenge,” Chief Judge Biedscheid said.

The time it takes to resolve a criminal case in the district courts in Santa Fe, Los Alamos and Rio Arriba counties is about 42 percent higher than the statewide average — 280 days in fiscal year 2025 in the First Judicial District compared with 197 days on average for all district courts statewide, according to preliminary data. That represents the average amount of time from the filing of a criminal case until the disposition of the charges, such as a conviction, acquittal or dismissal.

To help ensure cases are resolved in a timely manner, the district court asked the Supreme Court last year to consider a case management rule similar to that in the Second, Third and Eighth Judicial Districts. A proposed rule was published for public comment in March 2024. The final rule reflects feedback from justice partners such as the district attorney’s office, Law Offices of the Public Defender and law enforcement.

“By implementing the case management rule in 2026, law enforcement, prosecutors, defense attorneys will have additional time – as suggested in comments about the proposed rule – to prepare for the new procedural deadlines for moving criminal cases forward,” Biedscheid said.

The final rule also eliminated proposed requirements for prosecutors to file readiness certifications in cases and dropped a proposed 455-day time limit for moving track three cases to trial.