Marjeta Cotman was born on 2 October 1956 in Ptuj. In 1984 she graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Ljubljana. After an internship at the Supreme Court in Maribor, she passed the bar exam and was then employed by the Municipality of Ormož as a financial clerk and GAPA inspector. In 1988 she was engaged by the Surveying and Mapping Authority of the Republic of Slovenia as an independent legal and administrative adviser; in 1992, she received the position of Adviser to the Minister at the Ministry of Justice and Administration. She was responsible for the field of conscientious objection to military service. Her next post was in the National Assembly of the RS as Head of the Petition Department and Secretary of the Commission for Petitions. Between 1996 and 2003 she led the Committee on proficiency examinations for public administration workers from both the general and the specialised branch of GAPA.

After 2003 she worked as a misdemeanours judge in Ljubljana. In 2004, Ms Cotman was appointed a member of the Professional Examinations Board at the Academy of Administration with the Ministry of the Interior, awarding qualifications for handling and ruling in proceedings concerning minor offences.

Minister Marjeta Cotman speaks German and has a passive knowledge of French.