Colorado Court Records: Find Court Records in CO

The Colorado Supreme Court is the state's court of last resort. Down the hierarchical pyramid, there are 22 Judicial Districts within the state of Colorado as established by the state Legislature in 1963. 

The district and county courts handle the cases of criminal, civil, domestic relations, juvenile, probate, mental health, or misdemeanors, criminal traffic violations, civil traffic infractions, small claims, and felony complaints respectfully. Colorado court deals with many cases each year. 

If you were the party in one of the cases or need to run a Colorado court records search, keep reading this article.

How can Colorado civil court records be defined?

Most institutions and private individuals use court records as one of the best investigation and educational tools. This is because Colorado civil court records and court records contain all the information about each lawsuit that became the case. Typical Colorado civil court records include the following information:

• Full name of both plaintiff and defendant

• Brief description of the claim and the case

• The time and date the proceeding has been taken

What types of Colorado court records exist?
 

• Public and confidential Colorado court records

Generally, Colorado civil court records can be split into two broad categories: public and confidential. As the name implies, public Colorado civil court records can be viewed by any individual unless stated otherwise by the court. 

In contrast, confidential Colorado civil court records contain information that is considered sensitive and can negatively impact a party's standard of life.

It is worthy of note that there are a few exceptions to the rule:

-Depending on the case, some of the public Colorado civil court records might be kept confidential according to the judge's decision. 

And vice versa, if the case has drawn too much attention, such as when the proceedings involve celebrities, a judge may decide to reveal some Colorado court information if it would have been considered private in all other cases.
 

Confidential Colorado court records:

When running a Colorado court records search, you can keep in mind that all of the following Colorado civil court records would always be kept confidential if not stated otherwise by the court:

• Colorado court records on "juvenile dependency" and "juvenile delinquency."

Colorado civil court records on "juvenile dependency" contain records of cases where the child is removed from their parents. On the contrary, "juvenile delinquency" Colorado court records showcase the accusations that a child has committed a crime.

• Adoptions

• Confidential name changes

• Juvenile non-offender records (dependency, truancy, at-risk youth, child in need of services, termination of parental rights, and developmental disability placement)

• Paternity (except for final orders)

• Mental illness commitment records

• Alcohol and drug treatment commitment records

• Court records sealed by a judge's order

If you are a party in the case, you might be able to request that certain Colorado court records would be kept confidential even though they are considered public.

Who is eligible to run a Colorado court records search?

Once you have established which type of Colorado court records you have, you can run the Colorado court records search. The only way you would be eligible to access both public and confidential Colorado court records are when you are the party in the case. 

However, if it is not the case, you can only run a Colorado court search if you belong to any of the following groups:
 

• Person Authorized by a Party

If the party in the case needs some external help, they may assign another person to help them. In this case, a person authorized by a party can run a Colorado court records search. However, this does not apply to electronic records of criminal, juvenile justice, child welfare cases, or confidential electronic records.

• Court-appointed People

Every individual appointed by the court is allowed to access the Colorado court information

• Legal Aid and Government Staff are entitled to run a Colorado court records search.

Where to run Colorado civil court records search?

Running the Colorado court search might help you identify which types of Colorado court records your court has: electronic or paper. 

If there is a possibility to run the Colorado court records search electronically, you can do that remotely and physically at the courthouse, whereas running the Colorado court records search with physical paper records allows you to do that only at the courthouse. 

If you intend to run the Colorado court records search remotely, the best way is to do that on the Colorado Judicial Branch website (www.courts.state.co.us) and use the background check.co website to find out more information about the parties involved in the case.

Key takeaways: Running a Colorado court records search involves a few steps: identifying the type of Colorado court records you are searching for, determining your eligibility, and performing the search itself. Depending on how Colorado court records are stored, you could do that by physically arriving at the courthouse or running the search remotely.