Search Chaffee County Court Dockets

Searching the Chaffee County Court Docket

Need to know when and where a Combined Court hearing is set? Start with the free Chaffee-filtered Colorado Docket Search. The tool covers District and County Court calendars in Chaffee County. It does not hold the full Register of Action. Pleadings, signed orders, and document images are absent too. A city citation may never show up there. Salida, Buena Vista, and Poncha Springs run municipal matters through their own court channels.

Bring the full case number if you can. Colorado case numbers mix a four-digit year, class letters, and a sequence. No number? Search by party or business name instead. Then compare the county, case class, year, and hearing type before trusting a match. The public side of the docket search requires at least one filter beyond the date range.

1. Choose Chaffee County, the Eleventh Judicial District, or Chaffee Combined Court.
2. Set a useful date range, then add the case number, party, business, or attorney field.
3. Check the displayed number, court type, hearing label, date, appearance mode, and courtroom together.
4. Copy the case number exactly and use it on the official record request when the calendar is not enough.
5. Ask for the ROA first, then name the specific order or filing and request certification only when needed.

Note: A blank search does not prove that no Chaffee County court docket exists. The date range, class, spelling, court, or access status may explain the empty result.

Chaffee County Docket Search Limits

The Judicial Branch names its free service Docket Search. Each result is really a settings list. One row can carry the date, time, and duration. It may add the public display name, case number, hearing type, location, appearance type, and courtroom. It will not show the full run of filings or the document behind a ruling. Export and Printable Version make a row easy to save. Neither turns it into a court order.

The official Chaffee County docket interface shows how county and date filters work. They narrow the statewide calendar down to a Combined Court schedule.

That limit matters most. The public row points to a setting, while the ROA and filed papers must come through a separate record channel.

Inside a Chaffee County Court Docket

Colorado calls its chronological case summary the Register of Action, or ROA. A Chaffee County ROA can identify parties and roles. It can show charges or the claim class, list dated filings and minute orders, and track settings. It also records dispositions, sentences, or judgments. What the public actually sees depends on the case type and access rules. Protected identifiers and restricted documents stay sealed even when the event itself is listed.

Read each item by date and type. A setting shows what was scheduled. A minute order records a brief court act. When the legal result matters, the signed order or judgment is the document to request. A later notice may replace an earlier hearing date.

Chaffee County Docket Case Codes

Case class letters are the key to a fast Chaffee County docket search. District Court felonies usually carry CR. County Court misdemeanors use M, and county traffic matters use T. Civil filings split the same way: District Court civil cases take CV, County Court civil cases take C, and small claims use S. Domestic relations show up as DR, probate as PR, and juvenile classes come with access limits. The selector also lists water and a few other classes.

CR

A District Court criminal case, generally a felony track.

M

A County Court misdemeanor case.

T

A County Court traffic case, not every city ticket issued in the county.

CV, C, and S

District civil, County Court civil, and small-claims tracks.

DR and PR

Domestic-relations and probate matters, with document-specific access rules.

Treat a class as a routing clue only. It is not a summary of what happened. Confirm it against the number and the court, and do not force a municipal citation into a T search unless the citation names County Court or the case was later transferred there.

Courts That Keep Dockets in Chaffee County

Chaffee Combined Court puts two state trial levels under one roof in Salida. The Colorado District Court for the Eleventh Judicial District handles felonies, larger civil cases, domestic relations, and juvenile matters. Probate and other matters assigned by law land there too. Chaffee County Court takes misdemeanors, county traffic, small claims, and protection orders. Civil matters within its jurisdiction go there as well. Municipal courts handle only their own code and municipal traffic cases.

The official Chaffee trial-court page gathers the Combined Court docket, request, remote-hearing, and local practice links in one place.

For state matters, that court page is the sound starting point. A city-issued ticket should lead back to the municipal court named on the paper.

Two Chaffee County Record Clerks

Two different clerks serve Chaffee County. The Clerk of Court at Chaffee Combined Court keeps the state case file. It produces the ROA, court orders, tickets, judgments, and certified copies. The elected Chaffee County Clerk and Recorder is a separate county office. It handles recording, elections, motor vehicles, and other county functions. Both sit on Crestone Avenue in Salida. The distinction is easy to miss. The official Chaffee County government portal shows the county administrative side of that line.

Use county government for its listed county services. Use the Combined Court clerk when the request concerns a Chaffee County court docket or a case document.

How to Find Court Dates and Settings

Search the exact case number first. Widen the date range if you must. Then read the time, duration, hearing type, appearance mode, and courtroom as one group. Colorado's interface offers ranges from today through six months, plus a specific-date choice. Calendars change, so recheck near the hearing. A blank appearance field does not authorize remote attendance; call the clerk instead. Parties use the WebEx link supplied for their case. Public observers use the separate livestream.

Local labels include arraignment, advisement, status conference, and motions hearing. Also return filing of charges, appearance on bond, return date on summons, and plea/sentencing hearing. Remember that labels name the next event, not its result. The full Chaffee County court dates walkthrough explains resets and calendar fields.

Note: County Civil and District Court Rule 120 return dates are published for Mondays at 10:00 a.m. The current case notice controls.

Chaffee County Court Record Ladder

Pick the cheapest record layer that answers your question. The public calendar confirms a listed hearing. The ROA gives the chronology. A named pleading, order, ticket, decree, or judgment is the actual document. Certification or exemplification adds clerk authentication. Turn to it when a recipient demands proof. A transcript is a different animal. It captures spoken proceedings and goes through the transcript request channel rather than an ordinary ROA request.

Start with the case number. Ask for the ROA, then pin down the exact entry and date before ordering copies. That habit can save you from paying to copy a huge file. Published estimates are $0.25 per page and $20 per certified or exemplified document. A name search runs $5. Off-site retrieval costs actual cost. Research and redaction run $30 per hour after the first hour, billed in 15-minute increments.

Public Access to Court Dockets

Colorado court case records are governed by Judicial Branch access rules. The chief one is Chief Justice Directive 05-01. Administrative records follow a separate Chapter 38 rule. The Colorado Open Records Act helped shape that administrative framework, but it cannot replace the court-case directive. Some case information is available remotely. Some can only be viewed at a court facility. Some is excluded or protected entirely.

Suppressed cases, juvenile and probate records, and protected documents may require government photo identification or a court order. A sealed case can sit in the court's internal records while the public response stays restricted. Instead of reading a blank search as the final word, call the clerk with the case number and your relationship to the case.

Chaffee County Docket Access Changes

Chaffee County court access now runs through several distinct systems. Colorado Courts E-Filing receives electronic filings. The public Docket Search lists settings. A statewide web form takes document requests. WebEx supports parties in virtual proceedings, while the public livestream allows observation. No single account or screen unlocks every layer of the court docket. The official local judges and staff roster names the people who serve the Combined Court.

The roster shows who handles the Chaffee County docket. It lists District Judge Dayna Vise, County Judge Diana C. Bull, Magistrate Joanne Morando, Court Executive Lisa Rowe, and Clerk of Court and Registrar Robyn McPherson.

Access rules shift too. CJD 05-01 was amended several times in 2024 and 2025. Chapter 38 Rule 2 changed in 2025, and the local clerk counter adopted new hours in 2026. Rely on current official pages rather than an old saved instruction sheet.

Docket Records at the Clerk's Office

Robyn McPherson is the published Clerk of Court and Registrar. Her office maintains District and County Court files. It also builds ROAs, receives filings, records minute orders and outcomes, takes court payments, and provides plain or authenticated copies. You can request records through the official web form, by phone, or by authorized email. Mail or fax works where a form calls for it. The clerk counter takes requests too. Ask first about older off-site files and restricted matters. The Chaffee Combined Court location page publishes courthouse contact details and ordinary building hours.

The clerk counter keeps a narrower schedule starting March 1, 2026: 7:30 a.m. to noon and 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. on court business days. That half-hour lunch closure matters when you plan an in-person court record request.

Chaffee County Docket Workload

The FY2024 Judicial Branch report offers useful scale. It does not turn a filing count into a prediction about any one case. Chaffee District Court recorded 663 filings and 648 terminations. Criminal filings were 193. Civil were 202. Domestic-relations were 108, juvenile 64, mental-health 14, and probate 82. County Court reported 301 civil filings and 413 traffic filings. Municipal cases are not folded into that county traffic total.

Those figures show why court level and class matter. One Chaffee County docket search can span many tracks at once. A city ticket stays outside the County Court T total unless it actually reaches that court.

Missing Chaffee County Docket Results

First, widen the date window. Then recheck the spelling, county, court type, year, class, and sequence. A case may simply have no public setting in the period you chose. It may also be sealed or suppressed. It may sit in a category that never appears remotely. City matters and federal matters live in other systems.

Still nothing? Call or email the Combined Court clerk with the known number and party details. Ask whether the matter is held at the court. Ask whether it requires identification or an off-site retrieval request. For municipal matters, contact the city clerk named on the citation. For a federal matter, use PACER and the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.

Note: Public-terminal access is not confirmed on the current Chaffee court page. So ask the clerk before relying on an on-site terminal.

Chaffee County Court Dockets by City

Chaffee County has three incorporated municipalities. Salida, Buena Vista, and Poncha Springs each offer a municipal path for town or city code matters. The citation and the charging authority control, though. A felony, general civil case, family case, probate matter, or County Court charge never moves into municipal court. That changes nothing. It stays put even when the event happened inside a town. The official Buena Vista site offers local government and Municipal Court routing.

Each city keeps its own way of doing things, and the pages here hold onto those local details. You will find Salida's citation portal, Buena Vista's clerk-first access chain, and Poncha Springs' rules on tickets and court appearances.

Map and Directions to the Chaffee Combined Court

District Court and County Court files for Chaffee County are kept at the Chaffee Combined Court, 142 Crestone Avenue in Salida, one block from the separately elected Clerk and Recorder's office at 104 Crestone Avenue—an easy source of error when the two are confused. Courtroom numbers and letters appear in calendar results rather than as a single fixed room.

Visitors pass security screening, and weapons and vapes are forbidden. The clerk counter closes for lunch from noon to 12:30 p.m. Public-terminal availability is not confirmed on the official page, so call 719-539-2561 to ask before relying on an on-site terminal for a particular case.