Colorado Court Dockets: Free Search, Vendors, and Fees

The fastest way to run a Colorado court docket search is through the free tool at coloradojudicial.gov/dockets, which lets you pull case activity by case number, party name, attorney, court location, or date range.1Colorado Judicial Branch. Docket Search If you need more than hearing schedules and basic case activity, you have three other routes: three authorized third-party vendors that sell deeper register-of-actions data, a visit to the clerk’s office at the courthouse where the case was filed, or an online record request form through the state judicial branch.

Using the Free State Docket Search

The Colorado Judicial Branch’s docket search covers county and district courts across the state. The system requires at least one search filter beyond a date range before it will return results. Your options:

  • Location — judicial district, county, or specific courthouse
  • Court type — county court, district court, or both
  • Case number — four-digit year plus a case class code (CR for criminal, CV for civil, and so on) and a sequence number
  • Party name — first and last name for a person, or business name
  • Attorney name or bar number
  • Date range — today, one week, one month, three months, or six months

The system matches on exact character strings, so a misspelled party name returns nothing. If you have a case number from a summons, complaint, or hearing notice, use it. It’s the most direct way to land on the right record and avoids the ambiguity of common names.

What the free search shows is limited. You get scheduled hearings and case activity, not the filed documents themselves. For a fuller procedural history or copies of pleadings and orders, you’ll need one of the other routes below.

Authorized Third-Party Vendors

The Colorado Judicial Branch does not provide full case-document access on its own site. It authorizes three private vendors to sell real-time register-of-actions data covering civil, criminal, domestic, small claims, and traffic cases:2Colorado Judicial Branch. Access Guide to Public Records

  • Background Information Services (bisi.com)
  • LexisNexis Colorado Courts Record Search (cocourts.com)
  • Tessera Data (tesseradata.com)

These vendors pull from the state’s data feed, which makes them useful when you need to search several counties at once or run a background check. Two limits are worth knowing before you pay. First, these services show the register of actions, which is a summary of filings and events, not the documents themselves. If you need the actual pleadings or orders, you still have to request them from the court. Second, the vendor data is provided “as is” and is not the official court record. For anything you plan to file or rely on formally, go through the clerk.

Looking Up a Case at the Courthouse

Every Colorado courthouse has a clerk’s office open during business hours. Many courthouses also provide public access terminals in the lobby or near the clerk’s counter, where you can search case information yourself at no charge.3Colorado Judicial Branch. Colorado Courts Public Access Terminal Viewing docket information on those terminals is free.

Bring the case number if you have it. If you don’t, party names will usually be enough for the clerk to locate the file. The clerk can print the register of actions and pull copies of filed documents from the court’s system. This is the most reliable way to get the current, official version of a record, which matters when you need something for a legal proceeding or formal documentation.

Requesting Records Online or by Mail

When a courthouse visit isn’t practical, the Colorado Judicial Branch offers an online record request form.4Colorado Judicial Branch. Record/Document Request Form You’ll need to supply:

  • Your contact information
  • Case number, case type, and year filed
  • County or court location
  • Party names, plus the date of birth of the primary party if you know it
  • The specific documents you want, such as a divorce decree, disposition order, or register of actions

Requests involving suppressed cases, juvenile records, probate records, or documents containing confidential information may require a government-issued photo ID. Under normal circumstances, the court responds within three business days. Fees match the in-person schedule and are set under Chief Justice Directive 06-01.

One carve-out: Denver County Court cases do not go through the statewide form. Those requests go directly to the Denver County Court clerk’s office.

Federal Cases Aren’t on the State System

If your case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado or the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, it won’t appear in a state docket search. Federal records live in PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) at pacer.uscourts.gov.5PACER: Federal Court Records. PACER Pricing: How Fees Work You need a free account to log in, then select “Colorado District Court” from the dropdown to reach District of Colorado dockets.6Public Access To Court Electronic Records (PACER). Login PACER charges $0.10 per page for documents, search results, and reports, capped at $3 per individual document, and waives fees entirely if you spend $30 or less in a calendar quarter. A casual lookup of one or two cases usually stays under that threshold.

Appellate Opinions Are a Separate Tool

Colorado Supreme Court and Court of Appeals decisions aren’t searched through the docket system. They live in the Colorado Case Law Search at research.coloradojudicial.gov, which provides free access to published opinions from both courts and unpublished opinions from the Court of Appeals.7Colorado Judicial Branch. Colorado Case Law Search It’s a research database for the written rulings themselves, not for hearing schedules or filings.

Cases You Won’t Find in a Public Search

Colorado’s open records policy treats court dockets as public by default,8Justia. Colorado Code 24-72-201 – Legislative Declaration but several categories are closed to the general public and either won’t appear in a search or will appear with restricted information.

Juvenile delinquency records. Only the juvenile, a parent or guardian, attorneys of record, and the guardian ad litem can inspect these without a court order.9Justia. Colorado Code 19-1-304 – Juvenile Delinquency Records Anyone else needs the court’s consent and must show a legitimate interest. A narrow exception allows limited public access for certain felony or weapons charges, but even then the juvenile’s name, birth date, and photograph are kept out of the public record.

Adoption records. All adoption records are confidential and can be opened only under specific statutory exceptions or on a court finding of good cause.10FindLaw. Colorado Revised Statutes 19-5-305 – Confidentiality

Mental health proceedings. Records from evaluations and treatment under Colorado’s mental health statutes are confidential and privileged. They can be disclosed to courts as needed to administer the proceedings but are not available through a standard docket search.

Suppressed and sealed cases. A judge can suppress or seal a specific case when privacy outweighs the public interest in access. Suppressed cases disappear from standard searches entirely, and the clerk’s office cannot release information without a court order. Sealed records work the same way for public-facing searches.

What It Costs

Fees across Colorado state courts follow Chief Justice Directive 06-01.11Colorado Judicial Branch. Chief Justice Directive 06-01 – Directive Concerning Assessment of Court Fees and Costs Looking at a docket on a public terminal at the courthouse is free. Once you request copies, costs apply:

The research-and-redaction fee is the one that catches people out. Printing a current register of actions costs almost nothing. If the clerk has to dig through archived files or redact confidential material from documents, the $30-per-hour clock starts after the free first hour, and a complex request spanning several years can run up quickly.

Most Colorado courts accept credit and debit cards (American Express is generally not accepted), cash in person, and checks or money orders payable to “Clerk of Court” for mail requests. Separate checks are required for separate cases. Fees may be waived for government entities and in certain other situations set out in the directive.