Anna N. Martinez, Esq.

Anna N. Martinez graduated from Columbia University in 2002 with a B.A. degree in Middle East & Asian Languages and Cultures, and a minor in Religion. In 2005, Ms. Martinez received her J.D. from the University of New Mexico School of Law with a certificate in Federal Indian Law. In 2005, she returned home to Colorado to clerk for the Honorable Mary Mullarkey, Chief Justice of the Colorado Supreme Court. She joined Starrs Mihm LLP in September 2006 after completing her clerkship.

Ms. Martinez’s practice includes the areas of legal malpractice, medical malpractice, personal injury and wrongful death, and insurance bad faith. Ms. Martinez is admitted to practice in the state courts of New Mexico and Colorado.

In 2009, 2010 and 2011, Ms. Martinez was named as a“Rising Star” by Colorado Super Lawyers^®.

Areas of Practice

• Legal Malpractice Litigation
• Medical Negligence Litigation
• Personal Injury and Wrongful Death Litigation
• Employment Litigation

Recent Cases and Trials of Note

• Taylor Ranch litigation – This historical land rights lawsuit arises from a dispute about access to a historic 77,500 acre tract in Costilla County, Colorado. The land rights originated with the settlement of the Sangre de Cristo Land Grant by Mexican pioneers in the mid-1800s. The pioneers were promised customary communal land rights (i.e., usufructuary rights) in the nearby mountainous region that came to be known as “La Sierra”. The case reached the Colorado Supreme Court three times. Ms. Martinez currently represents some plaintiff landowners seeking to access La Sierra for purposes of exercising the rights outlined in the Colorado Supreme Court decision Lobato v. Taylor, 71 P.3d 938 (Colo. 2002), to graze animals, gather timber, and harvest firewood.
• Ms. Martinez represented a cattle rancher in eastern Colorado in what began as a minor misdemeanor criminal case in county court, but ended up before the Colorado Supreme Court. Ms. Martinez defended the rancher against animal cruelty and wildlife taking charges when he was accused of killing neighboring dogs after setting out coyote bait on his fenced and posted ranch property in effort to abate coyotes killing his newborn livestock. After Ms. Martinez won a motion to dismiss several of the key charges, the prosecution responded by halting trial and filing an interlocutory appeal. Ms. Martinez subsequently filed a motion to dismiss all charges on the grounds that the statutory speedy trial period had expired. Ms. Martinez ultimately won the case making arguments to the Adams County Court, the Adams County District Court, the Colorado Court of Appeals, and ultimately defeating the petition for a writ of certiorari made to the Colorado Supreme Court. County Court of Adams County, et al. v. Daniel J. Bowen, Case No. 2009-SC-297 (August 31, 2009).
• Michael Mihm and Anna Martinez recently represented a widow in a medical malpractice claim against a New Mexico hospital and emergency room physician arising out of the death of our client’s husband from an undiagnosed subdural hematoma, Donna Lau vs. San Juan Regional Medical Center, et al. Mr. Mihm and Ms. Martinez settled our client’s claims against the hospital and the emergency room physician for a confidential amount shortly before trial. Mr. Mihm and Ms. Martinez tried the claims against the remaining defendant, a New Mexico oral surgeon, however, after a three week trial the jury returned a verdict in favor of the defendant oral surgeon.

Publications

• Anna N. Martinez, Annual Supplement, Lawyers’ Professional Liability in Colorado, 2nd. Ed.
• Anna N. Martinez, “Intertribal Conflicts and Customary Law Regimes in North Africa: A Comparison of Haratin and Ait ‘Atta Indigenous Legal Systems,” 5 Tribal Law Journal 2004-05. Professional Associations and Honors
• Named a Colorado Super Lawyers^®, Rising Stars for 2009 and 2010
• Colorado Bar Association
• Colorado Hispanic Bar Association
• Colorado Women’s Bar Association
• New Mexico Bar Association
• Secretary on the Board of Directors for Unidos N Orguello, a non-profit organization serving the Latino GLBTQ community.

Bar Admissions

• Colorado
• New Mexico
• U.S District Court for the District of Colorado

Education

• University of New Mexico School of Law , J.D., and Certificate in Federal Indian Law, 2005 – Mary Beth & W. Richard West, Jr. Award for Excellence in Indian Law, 2005 – Helen S. Carter Writing Prize, 2003-2004
• Columbia University, B.A., 200

 

Practicing: Business Torts/Fraud Litigation (Plaintiff), Legal Malpractice Litigation (Plaintiff), Medical Malpractice Litigation (Plaintiff), Personal Injury (Plaintiff), Civil/Commercial Litigation, Appeals