Courts

COURT News:

SANTA FE – The New Mexico Supreme Court provided guidance July 3 to district courts that limits who can be added as a party to an abuse and neglect case.

In a unanimous opinion, the Court narrowed the scope of a procedural rule that allowed children’s courts to bring “any other person” into an abuse and neglect case as a party to the legal proceeding — a process known as joinder.

Under the rule, the parties in an abuse and neglect proceeding are the allegedly abused or neglected child, the child’s parent or guardian, the Children, Youth and Families Department, which operates the state’s Read More

NMSC News:

SANTA FE — The state Supreme Court Wednesday resolved an undecided question of law about where people must file lawsuits against cities and counties under the New Mexico Civil Rights Act (NMCRA).

The Court unanimously concluded that claims against a municipality under the NMCRA must be filed in a district court in the county where the community is located and a county must be sued within that county, unless another provision of law specifically requires the lawsuit to be brought elsewhere. The justices rejected arguments that plaintiffs could file lawsuits under the NMCRA in any Read More

STATE News:

SANTA FE — The state Supreme Court ruled today a potash company legally abandoned nearly all of its water rights in the Pecos River in New Mexico by not using the water for decades. The Court unanimously determined that Intrepid Potash, Inc. failed to put most of its water rights to “beneficial use” since closing a potash refinery near Loving in southeastern New Mexico in the early 1970s. The justices affirmed a decision of the state Court of Appeals that Intrepid had abandoned all but the rights to 150 acre-feet per year of water in the river.

New Mexico water law requires those who acquire Read More

NMSEC News:

ALBUQUERQUE — The New Mexico State Ethics Commission has filed a civil enforcement action against Dr. Joseph Shepard, the former president of Western New Mexico University (WNMU), for violations of the Governmental Conduct Act.

The Governmental Conduct Act requires public officials to treat their positions as a public trust and prohibits the use of public resources for private interests. It also prohibits officials from using government property or funds for any purpose other than what is authorized by law.

The Commission alleges that Shepard used his position as the president Read More

COURTS News:

The state Supreme Court today affirmed the first-degree felony murder convictions of Stephen Jay Goldman, Jr. stemming from the kidnapping and killing of two Albuquerque teenagers in 2018. Click here to read the nonprecedential decision in State v. Goldman, S-1-SC-40100.

Goldman was sentenced in 2023 to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment, which requires him to serve 60 years in prison before the possibility of parole. Read More

NMSEC News:

ALBUQUERQUE — A state district court has ruled in favor of the New Mexico State Ethics Commission in a significant decision clarifying that the Procurement Code applies to contracts between government bodies and private advertising agencies for services related to design, brand creation, marketing, research, and consulting. In an order issued June 23, 2025, the Honorable Steven A. Romero, District Court Judge for the Eighth Judicial District Court granted the Commission’s motion for partial summary judgment in the case of State Ethics Commission ex rel. Village of Angel Fire Read More

NMSC News:

SANTA FE — The New Mexico Supreme Court Monday clarified the contempt powers of state courts and their authority to impose sanctions on attorneys under judicial rules governing court procedures.

In a unanimous opinion, the Court concluded that a district court’s contempt and sanctions order against Albuquerque attorney William Ferguson was valid under a procedural rule – Rule 1-011 – intended to deter baseless court filings. That rule provided grounds for the sanctions against Ferguson to the extent that the court’s order “contemplated ‘willful misstatements in documents’ Read More