How to search Colorado court records
Colorado runs a single statewide case-lookup system, so one search — with the name spelled correctly — reaches courts across the entire state. Public access runs through a paid subscription vendor. Expect a per-search or per-month fee before you can see case details.
statewide fee criminal data
Open the official Colorado portal →
What's actually there
No free statewide case-record search. The Judicial Branch licenses its case index to paid vendors (LexisNexis CoCourts, Background Information Services, Tessera Data); a free Docket Search shows upcoming hearings only. Denver County Court is separate.
Other official lookups for Colorado
How Colorado's courts are organized
Colorado's state trial courts come in two levels, grouped into numbered judicial districts. County courts handle misdemeanors, traffic infractions, felony complaints at the first-appearance stage, protection orders, small claims, and civil cases under $25,000. District courts handle felonies, civil cases of any amount, divorce and other domestic relations cases, juvenile, probate, and mental health cases. In many counties both sit in one combined courthouse.
Denver is set up differently. Denver has its own district court plus a separate Denver Juvenile Court and Denver Probate Court, and Denver County Court is administered separately from the state courts, so its cases are kept in a different system. Seven water courts, one for each major river basin, decide water-rights cases. Appeals go to the Colorado Court of Appeals and then the Colorado Supreme Court. City municipal courts are separate local courts.
The Colorado Judicial Branch does not offer a free statewide name search of case records on its own website. It licenses its case index to commercial vendors, and it offers a free docket (court calendar) search for scheduled hearings.
Searching Colorado cases
The Judicial Branch's Access Guide to Public Records lists the approved vendors: Colorado Courts Record Search by LexisNexis (cocourts.com) and Background Information Services for individual and business users, and Tessera Data for business accounts. All of them charge; the branch does not publish their prices. Vendor results show the register of actions (the list of filings and events) for civil, civil water, small claims, domestic, felony, misdemeanor, and traffic cases. They do not include copies of documents, and the branch says the data is not the official court record and may not include every case or case type.
The free Docket Search on coloradojudicial.gov finds scheduled hearings. You can filter by judicial district, county, courthouse, court type, case number, party name, or attorney, over a range from today up to six months; at least one filter besides the date is required. It is a calendar, not a case history, so it will not show closed cases with no upcoming dates.
- Denver County Court cases (Denver traffic, misdemeanor, and county civil matters) are not in the state system or the vendors' data. Denver County Court's own Public Portal searches by case number or arrest booking number, and by name for cases with future court dates.
- Statewide arrest and criminal history checks are a separate service run by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, not the courts.
Getting copies or certified copies
Copies come from the court where the case was filed. The Judicial Branch has an online Record/Document Request Form; the request is routed to the right court, which contacts you, usually within three business days. Access is governed by Chief Justice Directive 05-01.
The fee estimates posted with the request form, under Chief Justice Directive 06-01, are $0.25 per page for copies (capped at $15 for parties and their lawyers, with no cap for anyone else), $20 per certified or exemplified copy, $5 for a name search, $25 for a transcript of judgment, $20 for a certificate of satisfaction, and $30 per hour for research or redaction after the first hour. Off-site file retrieval is billed at actual cost. Suppressed cases, juvenile and probate files, and some confidential documents may require a government-issued photo ID. Denver County Court records must be requested from Denver County Court.
Sealed cases and Colorado's record-sealing law
Colorado seals records rather than destroying them. The sealing rules are in the Criminal Justice Records part of the Colorado Revised Statutes, C.R.S. 24-72-701 and following; the court's guide for conviction records points to sections 24-72-703, 24-72-706, and 24-72-707. Many convictions can be sealed after a waiting period counted from the end of the case or supervision: 1 year for petty offenses, 2 years for class 2 and 3 misdemeanors and drug misdemeanors, 3 years for class 4 to 6 felonies and class 1 misdemeanors, and 5 years for other eligible offenses. Some offenses, including many violent, sexual, and domestic-violence offenses and certain traffic offenses, cannot be sealed. A sealing order does not vacate the conviction, and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation has a separate step and fee before its own record is sealed.
Some conviction records are now sealed automatically under C.R.S. 13-3-117, and the Judicial Branch offers a Sealed Case Search that only the defendant may use to check one case at a time. The court's filing fee for a motion to seal a conviction is listed as $65, with a fee-waiver motion available. This is general information, not legal advice; talk to a lawyer or the self-help center in your judicial district, where staff called Sherlocks can point you to forms but cannot give legal advice.
Colorado tip: read the case number
State case numbers are built from a four-digit year, a case class, and a sequence number, and the court location is entered separately. The branch's request form groups the classes this way: CR, M, T, JD, and R for criminal and traffic matters; DR and JV for family and juvenile matters; and C, CV, and S for civil and small claims. Both the Docket Search and the Sealed Case Search ask for these parts separately. A number that does not fit this pattern, such as 17GS1234 or one starting with D, is usually a Denver County Court case and must go to Denver's own portal.
Sources
- Colorado Judicial Branch — Access Guide to Public Records
- Colorado Judicial Branch — Docket Search
- Colorado Judicial Branch — Record/Document Request Form
- Colorado Judicial Branch — Trial Courts by County
- Colorado Judicial Branch — Chief Justice Directive 05-01 (amended Nov. 10, 2025)
- Colorado Judicial Branch — Seal My Case
- Colorado Judicial Branch — JDF 611 How to Seal Criminal Conviction Records (PDF)
- Colorado Judicial Branch — Sealed Case Search
- Colorado Judicial Branch — Self-Help Resources
- Denver County Court — Public Portal
Checked against the official sources above in October 2026. Court rules and fees change; the court's own site is the final word. This is general information, not legal advice.
Federal cases filed in Colorado
State portals don't cover federal court. If the case you're looking for might be a federal criminal prosecution, civil suit, or bankruptcy, use CourtRecordsFree's live federal search — it queries CourtListener/RECAP directly and isn't limited to any one state.
Search tips
- Try both "Last, First" and "First Last" — courts index names inconsistently.
- Middle initials and suffixes (Jr., III) often matter for common names.
- A date of birth or case number is the only reliable way to confirm you found the right person.
- An arrest or charge shown in a docket is not a conviction — read the disposition.
Frequently asked questions
Is it free to search Colorado court records online?
No — Colorado routes public case search through a paid vendor. Budget for a per-search or subscription fee to view full case details.
Does this include criminal records?
Yes. Colorado's portal includes criminal case records alongside civil cases, though sealed and expunged cases are not shown.
Does one search cover the whole state?
Colorado runs one statewide system, so a single search covers the whole state.
Links move. If the Colorado portal link above is dead, tell us on the corrections page.