Colorado Court Records Search

About Colorado Courts:

The judicial branch is headed by the Colorado Supreme Court, the state supreme court. In addition to its role as the state's highest appellate court, the Colorado Supreme Court supervises the state court system and the state's lawyers. The Supreme Court consists of a chief justice and six associate justices. The Colorado Court of Appeals is the state intermediate appellate court.

The Colorado District Courts are the state trial courts of general jurisdiction. There are 22 judicial districts in the state, which include one or more of Colorado's 64 counties. They have original jurisdiction in civil cases with any amount in controversy; felony criminal cases, domestic relations, family law, and cases involving minors cases (including adoption, dependency, juvenile delinquency, and paternity actions), probate, and mental health cases. Court filings in District Court generally indicate the county within the district in which the action is filed and the District Court generally conducts proceedings in that action in that county.

Within the City and County of Denver, a consolidated city–county, the Denver Probate Court and the Denver Juvenile Court have jurisdiction over probate and juvenile matters respectively. Outside Denver, these matters are within the jurisdiction of the District Courts.

Colorado County Courts are courts of limited jurisdiction. There is one County Court in each of the 64 counties, including the consolidated city-counties of Denver and Broomfield. They hear misdemeanor cases, preliminary hearings in felony cases, evictions, civil cases not involving ownership of real property with an amount in controversy up to $15,000, and several other narrowly defined types of cases such as name changes and temporary restraining orders. There is one county court in each of Colorado's counties.

In some municipalities of Colorado there are municipal courts, which are not part of the state court system. These courts may hear only cases of local ordinance violations with punishments no more severe than misdemeanor offenses. In Denver, county courts and municipal courts are integrated and are not part of the state court system for administrative purposes. Some municipal courts are courts of record which can impose greater sanctions for ordinance violations and are subject to appellate review in a manner similar to state courts. Other municipal courts are courts not of record, which can impose only less severe sanctions for ordinance violations, whose decisions are appealed through trials de novo in the appellate court. A small number of municipal courts in Colorado have been granted civil jurisdiction in certain ordinance cases, such as cases involving land use, under municipal home rule powers, in addition to quasi-criminal jurisdiction.