Were that many new laws were passed in the 2003 legislature? No, there were the normal number of new laws. The 5 3/4 inches is in large part due to the average number of lines on each page for the statutes, 57 for Bender vs. 59 for Bradford. Type size on the annotations appears to have stayed the same.

Two lines a page might not seem a lot, but if you count the number of pages in CRS, it is a lot. Bender also reduced the side margins on the outer portion of each page. Bradford side margins were 1/2 inch. Bender cut that to 1/4 inch. Also, the average bottom margin has been reduced from 3/8ths of an inch to 2/8ths.

So you now have smaller margins but fewer lines, resulting in more readable text and heavier books. How much does 5 3/4 inches equal? The combined size of volumes 6, 7 A, and 7 B.

How heavy do some of the volumes weigh? Volume 2 and 12 remind me of the metropolitan phone books.

Congratulations to Matthew Bender and Co. for more readable type and more annotations, which was good; but it really is time for more utilitarian sizes, at least for the benefit of older lawyers (and there are quite a few).

Bender should make each volume slightly over two inches, which would give us 15 volumes. In this situation, more is better. We've come a long way from the one volume, four inch wide statute book of 1921.

Think about that. Colorado laws have gone from four inches in 1921 to 30 and 3/4 inches in 2003!