DENVER PROBATE COURT JUDGE IN THE SPOTLIGHT
June 11,2026
Denver, Colorado
By the SPF Editors
Denver Probate Judge Elizabeth Leith (shown left) has long been a fixture in Colorado’s probate system.
During her tenure on the bench, Leith has been the subject repeated public outcries, including a three-part Denver7 News investigation in 2021 by people who claim that she is at best, ignorant of the law, and at worst, has turned her Court into a vehicle for guardianship professionals to earn millions of dollars in fees by exploiting vulnerable people.
SEALED CASES REVEALED
The spotlight on Leith’s behavior came into sharp focus last year. Much of Leith’s judicial work centers on Guardianships involving people with diminished capacity. These cases, unlike other cases, are sealed from public disclosure. This means that Judge Leith’s rulings and behavior are hidden from public scrutiny.
Because adult guardianship records are sealed in Colorado, the only way for the public to know about Leith’s activities was for individuals to step forward with public statements outside the court to expose what Judge Leith wanted to hide inside her court.
HISTORY OF COMPLAINTS
In the last 12 months a team of court reform activists, from Colorado and across the country, has compiled first person testimony of families who claim to have been victims of guardianship system abuse in the court of Judge Leith.
These local and national probate and guardianship court advocates, include Richard Black at the Center for Estate Administration Reform (CEAR), and Luanne Fleming and Robin Austin with Colorado’s “The Probate Trap” website and podcast. These groups have decades of collective experience in combating guardianship abuse, fraud, and corruption in local courts from coast to coast.
Their efforts led to an extraordinary set of 13 statements about Judge Leith that were submitted last month to Colorado Governor Jared Polis and in a 45-page judicial ethics complaint filed against her in 2025.
In the 2025 ethics complaint, Northwestern Professor Bernard Black details the chaos in Leith’s court, saying that “Judge Leith has repeatedly acted without subject matter and/or personal jurisdiction and repeatedly ignored contrary statutory, constitutional, and case law. She does not address the contrary law in her decisions, but just ignores it….”
Later, Professor Black adds that “Judge Leith repeatedly decided issues not before her; repeatedly ruled without any evidence whatsoever; repeatedly ruled contrary to decisions in other courts.”
Black’s 2025 complaint was presented to the Colorado Commission on Judicial Discipline, which took no action was taken. The complaint was ignored, and Judge Leith’s conduct, in this and other cases, continued unchecked.
Then, two weeks ago, the group submitted their work directly to Governor Polis. The report (link) includes statements from of multiple families who claim to have lost millions of dollars to a billing racket run by professional guardians and their lawyers. Judge Leith routinely approves their bills and, as Prof. Black’s ethics complaint documents, has been known to respond to family complaints by hiding the bills from the family.
WILL ANYTHING BE DONE?
Leith has been a judge for 15 years, but is up for re-election this year. In order for Leith to be on the ballot in November, Governor Polis must first re-nominate her for the post.
While the Colorado Commission on Judicial Discipline, refused to investigate Judge Leith, the current question is if Governor Polis will also ignore the record, and re-nominate Leith for another term on the bench.
The problem for Leith—and for Polis—is that none of her peers have publicly stepped forward in her defense.
The question now is if Governor Polis will ignore the complaints and renominate a troubled judge, or recognize the serious, longstanding, well-documented problems with Judge Leith’s rulings and behavior, and find a better replacement.
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