Getting Chaffee County Court Records
The Clerk of Court at Chaffee Combined Court keeps the case files for District Court and County Court. Start with the free Chaffee Docket Search when you need a hearing date or a case number. Once you have that, the official Record/Document Request Form is the way to ask. Use it for the Register of Action or a named filing. It is the main online document channel. Still, it is not the only one.
You can also request Chaffee County court records by phone at 719-539-2561. Email ChaffeeCountyClerk@judicial.state.co.us where authorized. Mail goes to P.O. Box 279, Salida, CO 81201. You can also come in person at the clerk counter at 142 Crestone Avenue. Use fax or mail when a cited form requires it. Some older files sit off-site, so ask about archive retrieval first. Transcripts go through a separate court reporter process.
- Identify District, County, or Municipal Court and find the exact case number if possible.
- Choose the ROA first when the precise title or date of a filing is not known.
- Select Chaffee County, give the year and party information, and describe the record with care.
- Choose plain, certified, or exemplified copies based on the receiving office's needs.
- Review the clerk's quote, provide ID if required, and use the separate transcript route for spoken proceedings.
Chaffee County Four-Record Ladder
Four different products get called a court record in Chaffee County. Each one answers a different question. The free public Docket Search is just a hearing list. The ROA gives you the full case history in order. Filed documents are the real papers behind certain docket entries. Certification or exemplification is what you order when a copy needs the clerk's official authentication.
| Record layer | What it supplies | What it does not supply |
|---|---|---|
| Docket Search | Date, time, duration, case number, hearing type, location, appearance mode, and courtroom | Full event history or document images |
| Register of Action | Chronological summary of filings, minute orders, charges, sentences, judgments, or other events | Every indexed paper as an image |
| Filed document | The selected complaint, order, judgment, ticket, decree, or other paper | Authentication unless certified |
| Certified or exemplified copy | A clerk-authenticated version of the named document | A broader file than the item ordered |
Work the ladder from the bottom up when a file is thick. A short ROA often shows the exact docket date and the document title you need. That one detail can spare you from paying to copy papers that do not matter.
Court Record Types
The official form sorts record requests by case type. For a criminal case, you can ask for a Complaint or Information, a Disposition or Sentence Order, a Protection Order, a Ticket, or an ROA. Civil requests cover an Order for Judgment, a Transcript of Judgment, a Satisfaction of Judgment, and a Protection Order. Family cases offer a divorce decree, a parenting plan, a separation agreement, a support order, or a petition.
- Probate records such as letters, wills, trusts, applications, petitions, closing papers, and claims
- District Court felony, civil, domestic-relations, juvenile, probate, and other assigned case records
- County Court misdemeanor, traffic, small-claims, protection-order, and lower-value civil records
- Municipal ordinance and city-traffic records held by the issuing municipal court clerk
- Transcripts ordered through the court reporter or transcript request channel
Exhibits take extra care. One may sit with a different office, have been returned, fall under privacy rules, be sealed, or be off limits for safety and contraband reasons. Before you pay for a request, ask the Chaffee County clerk who actually holds the exhibit.
Chaffee County Record Request Fields
Filling out the statewide form starts with your own contact block. A street address is required, along with city, state, and ZIP. For the case itself, you can supply the number, type, year filed, county or location, party names, an optional date of birth, and any other identifying facts. Know the file sits in Chaffee County? Pick it from the list. Skip the unknown-county box.
Describe the document by name and date whenever you can. Need only the case history? Check Other and select Register of Action or ROA. Probate files sometimes ask for a date of death. Marking the certified or exemplified box changes the kind of copy. It can also add a fee to the request.
| Case number | Optional when other identifiers suffice, but the strongest way to prevent a wrong-file search. |
|---|---|
| Party information | Required name or names as they appear in the Chaffee County case. |
| Year and case type | Helps distinguish cases with similar parties or numbers. |
| Document choice | The ROA or exact paper, such as an order, ticket, judgment, decree, or probate filing. |
| Certification | Requested only when a clerk-authenticated document is needed. |
Inside a Chaffee County Court Record
A Chaffee County court record holds far more than the public calendar does. The ROA typically gathers everything in one place. It lists case number, class, year, location, the parties and their roles, dated filings, minute orders, settings, and recorded outcomes. Civil files follow a familiar arc from complaint and service through response, motion, setting, order, judgment, and satisfaction. A criminal record may include the charging paper, setting history, disposition, and sentence order where public.
| Case number and class | The year, class letters, and sequence that identify the Chaffee court matter. |
|---|---|
| Parties and roles | The caption and roles such as plaintiff, defendant, petitioner, or respondent. |
| Pleadings | Filed petitions, complaints, answers, motions, and related papers available under access rules. |
| Minute orders | The court's brief official record of a ruling or event. |
| Orders and judgments | Signed or recorded directions and enforceable civil determinations. |
| Disposition or sentence | The recorded outcome, which must not be inferred from a hearing label alone. |
Some personal identifiers get redacted. Restricted documents may stay closed unless you show identity or legal authority. The clerk can walk you through the request process, but no clerk may grant access that a law or court order withholds.
Chaffee County Record Custodian Check
Two different offices serve Chaffee County, and people mix them up. Chaffee Combined Court holds state trial-court files. The elected Chaffee County Clerk and Recorder handles land recording, elections, motor vehicles, and other county functions. Robyn McPherson is the published Clerk of Court and Registrar for the court side. Both offices sit close together on Crestone Avenue. The distinction is easy to miss. The official Clerk and Recorder page shows the separate county office:
Court paperwork like an ROA, judgment, ticket, or court order is held by the Combined Court clerk, so that is where a Chaffee County request should go. Route it to the recorder instead and your docket search will only lose time.
Chaffee Combined Court Clerk
142 Crestone Avenue, P.O. Box 279
Salida, CO 81201
719-539-2561
ChaffeeCountyClerk@judicial.state.co.us
Fees and Certified Copies
Chaffee County copies come in a few grades. A plain copy is just the public paper as it sits in the file. The clerk authenticates a certified copy. An exemplified copy carries even higher authentication. Before ordering, ask whoever receives the court record which grade they require. One caution: certification does not open a restricted record to the public.
| Item | Current published estimate |
|---|---|
| Plain copy | $0.25 per page |
| Party or attorney copies | $15 maximum for parties to their case and their attorneys; no maximum for nonparties |
| Transcript of Judgment | $25 |
| Certificate of Satisfaction | $20 |
| Certified or exemplified copy | $20 per document |
| Name search | $5 |
| Off-site retrieval | Actual cost |
| Research or redaction after first hour | $30 per hour in 15-minute increments |
Treat the listed sums as estimates only. The clerk can quote the full total before producing anything. Fees may also be waived where required under Chief Justice Directive 06-01 or C.R.S. section 13-32-104(1)(a).
Chaffee County Record Response Timing
Expect roughly three business days for a reply through the web form. Extenuating circumstances can slow things down. Treat that as a service goal. It is not a promise that every file can go out that fast. Some archives sit in off-site storage. A long request may call for research and redaction. A protected record can trigger an identity review. It can even require a court order.
For anything old, certified, or restricted, call the Chaffee County clerk before you go. The counter keeps published hours. Those hours run 7:30 a.m. to noon and 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. starting March 1, 2026. The courthouse itself stays open Monday through Friday. Its hours are 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., excluding state holidays. Those two schedules are not the same thing.
Older Chaffee County court records may predate electronic indexing. Off-site retrieval is billed at actual cost. Give staff a precise ROA-first request. You may cut both the delay and the copying bill.
Sealed Records and Public Access
Colorado's central policy on public access to court records is Chief Justice Directive 05-01. It covers remote access, records you can only view at a facility, excluded records, fees, corrections, and vendor duties. Because the directive has been amended recently, work from the current consolidated version rather than an old printout.
Key access rules:
CJD 05-01 governs public access to Colorado case records and identifies remote, facility-only, and excluded categories.
Colorado Supreme Court Chapter 38, Rule 2 governs Judicial Branch administrative records, not individual court case files.
C.R.S. sections 24-72-704 through 24-72-710 provide part of Colorado's criminal-record sealing framework.
Bring government-issued photo ID for suppressed cases, juvenile and probate records, or files with protected information. Sealing limits what the public can see. It does not wipe out every internal court record. Ask the clerk what proof or order your specific file requires.
Chaffee County Records Outside Court
Some legal records never touch the Chaffee Combined Court file. A transcript records what was said aloud in court. It follows the transcript request process. Judicial Branch budgets, policies, and administrative correspondence take the administrative-record path. That path sits under Chapter 38, Rule 2. Municipal citations stay with the city clerk. That holds unless they are transferred or appealed.
Federal cases run on a separate system. Chaffee County sits inside the United States District Court for the District of Colorado. Bankruptcy goes through the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Colorado. The official bankruptcy court site shows that separate docket entry point:
PACER and CM/ECF serve federal dockets, not the Chaffee clerk. For a state case, start with a Chaffee County case lookup to get the number. Then file the court-record request.
Probation is not a docket custodian either. Payment, supervision, records, and court-file questions can land in different offices. That can happen even for a single case.