Over 72? You Might Never Have to Serve Jury Duty Again Under New Colorado Bill

What This Bill Actually Does

Jury duty is a cornerstone of our justice system, but let's be honest: navigating a bustling courthouse, finding parking, and sitting in an uncomfortable assembly room all day can be a serious physical burden, especially as we get older. Currently, if you receive a jury summons in Colorado, you have to show up unless you can prove a specific, documented medical or financial hardship. House Bill 26-1022 changes the rules of the game by creating a no-questions-asked exit ramp for anyone who is 72 years old or older.

Under the proposed additions to Colorado Revised Statutes 13-71-119.5, you get two clear choices when that summons hits your mailbox. First, you can request a temporary opt-out. Maybe you're traveling, recovering from a minor surgery, or just don't feel up to it this year, but you'd still like to stay in the jury pool for the future. Second, you can request a permanent opt-out, meaning the court will officially remove your name from the jury roster forever. Crucially, the bill requires you to make this request before the date you're actually supposed to report. You can't just ignore the mail and claim the exemption after the fact.

To keep the system honest, the local judge or jury commissioner is allowed to ask for documentation to prove you've actually hit that 72-year milestone—think a driver's license, passport, or birth certificate. But if you're worried about privacy, the bill text has you covered. It explicitly states that any document you hand over "is not a public record and must not be disclosed to the public." This ensures your personal data doesn't end up in a searchable public database just because you wanted to skip jury selection.

What It Means for You

If you or your parents are in that 72-plus demographic, this bill is a major quality-of-life win that respects your time and mobility. You get to maintain complete control over your civic agency. Want to serve on a jury? You absolutely still can; the bill doesn't ban older adults from serving. But if the thought of navigating the courthouse sounds miserable, you get a clean, legal way out starting January 1, 2027. You don't have to beg a doctor for a medical note or navigate a complex legal bureaucracy to prove a hardship. You just check a box, provide proof of your age, and go about your day.

On the flip side, if you are under 72, this bill quietly shifts a bit more civic responsibility onto your shoulders. According to the state's projections, roughly 63,000 seniors are summoned for jury duty every year in Colorado, and they expect about 35 percent of them—roughly 22,000 people—to take advantage of this new opt-out. To keep the local courts functioning smoothly, the state has to pull 22,000 new names from the younger demographic pool to replace them. That means your statistical odds of finding a jury summons in your mailbox are about to go up slightly.

Here is what you should do to prepare for this change:

• Talk to your older family members: Make sure your parents or grandparents know this relief is coming in 2027, so they don't stress over jury summonses they might receive in the future.
• Check your ID: If you plan to use this opt-out, make sure you have a valid, unexpired state ID ready to prove your birth date to the local jury commissioner.
• Watch your mail: If you're a younger resident, be extra diligent about checking your mail for summonses starting in late 2026, as the state ramps up mailings to replace the exiting seniors.

What It Means for Your Business

On the surface, a jury duty bill sounds like an individual issue, but it has direct, practical implications for local workforce management. Because the Judicial Department expects to mail 22,000 replacement summonses to keep the jury pools full, those new summonses are landing squarely in the laps of working-age Coloradans. If you own a business or manage a team, expect a slight but noticeable uptick in the number of employees requesting time off for jury duty starting in early 2027. You won't need to overhaul your entire HR department, but you will need to be prepared for the scheduling hiccups that come with increased civic duties for your staff.

There is also a micro-economy around how the state communicates with its residents. The legislative fiscal note points out that the state will spend about $0.68 per summons to print and mail these replacements. While the state handles most of this centrally, local municipal courts and the Denver County Court will also have to redesign their templates and increase their mailing volumes to account for older residents opting out. If you operate a local commercial printing business, a direct-mail house, or provide administrative software to municipal governments, this shift creates a minor but tangible bump in volume and potential contract updates.

Here are the action items business owners should knock out this week:

• Audit your PTO policy: Double-check your employee handbook's section on jury duty. Make sure it strictly complies with Colorado law regarding paid time for jury service, as your employees might be using it slightly more often.
• Plan for coverage gaps: For small businesses with tight staffing, recognize that your 30-to-50-something employees are about to absorb the jury duty requirements of the 72-plus crowd. Cross-train your staff now so a sudden jury summons doesn't derail your operations.
• Watch for municipal RFPs: If you're in the printing or government-contracting space, keep an eye out for local municipalities requesting updated printing bids as they redesign their summons templates to comply with the new law.

Follow the Money

The math on this bill is incredibly straightforward, and the price tag is effectively pocket change for the state. The bill will cost the state's General Fund $9,480 in FY 2026-27 (which is a prorated half-year impact since the law doesn't kick in until January 2027), and then it levels out to an ongoing cost of $14,960 per year after that. The Judicial Department also needs a quick $2,000 right out of the gate to redesign the actual jury summons template to include instructions for the new opt-out process.

Those recurring costs are literally just postage and paper. At $0.68 a pop, mailing 22,000 additional replacement summonses adds up to that ~$15,000 annual price tag. It's a microscopic drop in the bucket for a state budget that measures in the billions, which makes it an easy pill for lawmakers to swallow. However, it is worth noting that city-funded municipal courts and the Denver County Court will have to absorb their own costs to redesign forms and mail extra notices. So while the state is covering its own tabs, there is a tiny, localized unfunded mandate trickling down to the city level.

Where This Bill Stands

HB26-1022 is moving at a very healthy clip through the Capitol. It was introduced by Representative Carlos Barron on January 14, 2026, and by January 29, the House Committee on State, Civic, Military, & Veterans Affairs gave it the green light. They amended the bill slightly and referred it over to the House Appropriations Committee.

Because the fiscal impact is so incredibly low—less than $10,000 in its first year—this bill is highly likely to breeze through Appropriations without a hitch. The bills that typically die in the Appropriations committee are the ones with multi-million dollar price tags that the state simply can't afford. Keep an eye out for a quick floor vote in the House over the next few weeks before it crosses the rotunda over to the Senate. Assuming it passes and the Governor signs it, the new rules will officially take effect on January 1, 2027.