Garfield County Criminal Docket Searches
Need a hearing date fast? The Colorado Judicial Branch Docket Search filtered to Garfield is the first stop. Pick a date range, and set the location to Garfield County or Garfield County-Rifle. Enter the case number if you have it. Party or attorney details can narrow results further. Remember that each result is only a calendar entry. It is not the full Register of Action. It shows when and where court is set, without listing every charge, motion, bond entry, plea, or sentence.
A full Garfield County criminal court docket search follows a short chain. The case heading tells you which clerk holds the file. The live calendar confirms the setting. The clerk request fills in the history the calendar leaves out.
- Read the paperwork for the court name, location, year, and CR, M, T, or R case code.
- Search the live Garfield docket by date and case number, then match the courtroom, hearing type, and appearance field.
- Use the state Record/Document Request Form and select Garfield when the Register of Action or a filed paper is needed.
- Choose the Complaint/Information, Disposition/Sentence Order, Protection Order, Ticket, or Register of Action checkbox instead of asking for an undefined whole file.
- Use GCGWSCourt@judicial.state.co.us, call 970-928-3065, or visit the proper clerk counter when the case cannot be resolved online.
Garfield Criminal Codes Route Cases
Garfield County criminal dockets are not all kept in one court. A YYYYCR### number usually marks a District Court felony file. County Court uses M for misdemeanors. T or similar lower-court codes mark state traffic and infraction cases. A city summons may follow a local format. It stays with Rifle, Glenwood Springs, New Castle, Silt, or Carbondale. What matters is the court heading. That is where the file sits, not where the event took place.
| Code or heading | Likely docket | Custodian |
|---|---|---|
| CR | District Court felony | Garfield Combined Courts Clerk |
| M | County Court misdemeanor | Garfield Combined Courts Clerk |
| T or R | State traffic or lower criminal track | Garfield Combined Courts Clerk |
| City summons | Municipal ordinance or city traffic | Named municipal court clerk |
That split explains why a municipal charge can be missing from the state calendar. A sheriff or state-trooper citation usually routes to County Court. A city police citation may stay municipal instead. The appearance place printed on the citation controls.
Criminal Dockets: What They Show
A Garfield County calendar result shows only the scheduled event. A requested Register of Action reaches much further. It typically gathers the case header, parties, and counsel. Filings appear in order, along with minute orders, hearings, disposition or sentence, and public financial entries. The official request form describes the ROA as a brief explanation. It can include charges, sentences, and minute orders. When exact wording matters, request the charging paper or sentence order itself.
| Case number | The filing year, code, and sequence, such as YYYYCR###. |
|---|---|
| Calendar setting | Date, start time, estimated duration, hearing type, location, appearance field, and courtroom. |
| Charge history | Complaint or information entries and later amendments on the ROA, not on the public calendar sample. |
| Orders and motions | Chronological minute orders, filed motions, setting notices, continuances, and rulings where public. |
| Outcome | Dismissal, conviction, deferred judgment, sentence, probation review, appeal, or closure entries when accessible. |
One displayed name row does not always mean one distinct case. The docket can list the same case again for each party shown. Count matching case numbers before comparing entries.
Garfield Plea Hearings Need Context
A "Plea Hearing" on the Garfield County criminal docket is a setting still ahead. It proves no guilty plea and no conviction. Give the same caution to a Court Trial or Jury Trial label. Those entries say what is scheduled, not what happened. The later minute order and the Disposition/Sentence Order carry the result. A reset or dismissal can shift the case. So can a plea deal or other order, before or during the hearing.
- Dismissed
- A charge ended without a conviction on that count.
- Deferred judgment
- Judgment may be deferred under an agreement while stated conditions are completed.
- Sentence order
- The filed order recording consequences after a criminal disposition.
- Warrant or FTA
- A court entry tied to nonappearance or another warrant event.
Rifle explains separately that a suspended sentence there follows a conviction and often runs six or twelve months. That local outcome differs from the Colorado sealing and expungement process. The conviction stays public unless a separate law and order restrict access.
Criminal Case Stages on the Docket
The Garfield County criminal Register of Action lays out procedural steps in time order. Begin with the charging entry. Then follow advisement or arraignment, public bond and release entries, and pretrial motions and conferences. The plea or trial event comes next. The recorded outcome follows it. Post-disposition entries may include restitution, collections, probation review, appeal, compliance, or sealing. Each phase can appear more than once.
Docket flow: Filing → Arraignment → Pretrial → Plea or Trial → Disposition → Sentencing
The public calendar leaves out bond details, charge statutes, counsel lists, and linked filings in the de-identified Garfield sample. Need one of those facts? Ask for the ROA and the named document. A saved calendar export is only a snapshot.
Garfield Criminal Document Requests
The state request form lets you choose the exact criminal product. Complaint/Information is the charging document. Disposition/Sentence Order records the outcome and sentence. The ROA gives the chronological summary. Certification or exemplification is a separate step when a copy needs the clerk's authentication. For a transcript, use the reporter channel rather than the clerk's copy desk.
No case number? The local Garfield search form helps. It asks for case numbers or charge type, full party names, date of birth, approximate filing date, and requester details. The fee is $5 per name or case number, and the form allows three to five business days. Send requests to GCGWSCourt@judicial.state.co.us or visit the Glenwood counter at 109 8th Street, Suite 104. Older files may add off-site retrieval cost.
The Judicial Branch sealing resource is the official starting point for forms and routes tied to sealing.
That resource does not show whether any case qualifies or has been sealed. The order in the court file and current Colorado law control.
Garfield County Criminal Docket Courts
Two state courts split the Garfield County criminal docket. Felonies sit in District Court, which belongs to the Ninth Judicial District. Misdemeanors, state traffic matters, and other limited tracks go to Garfield County Court. The Clerk of Court at Garfield County Combined Courts keeps both sets of records. You can reach state filings in Glenwood Springs or at the Rifle associate location.
Municipal courts run on a much smaller map. Rifle, Glenwood Springs, New Castle, Silt, and the current Carbondale municipal channel each run their own courts. Each holds its own city-code and traffic files. The elected Garfield County Clerk and Recorder keeps none of these. That office never touches a court docket file. A criminal record request mailed to that office simply never arrives. It never reaches the court that holds the file.
Not sure which court issued your paperwork? Compare the heading and address on the summons against the official Garfield Combined Courts page. A city citation belongs with the city clerk. Anything headed District Court or County Court belongs to Combined Courts.
Garfield Criminal Search Fallbacks
An empty calendar is not an answer. It does not prove a Garfield County criminal case is closed. Nor does it show that no case exists. The week you picked may hold no settings at all. A name could be spelled differently. Or the matter may be municipal, archived, sealed, or otherwise restricted. Run the search again with the case number and a wider date range. Then take the question from the calendar to a clerk request.
- Email the local form to GCGWSCourt@judicial.state.co.us.
- Call Garfield Combined Courts at 970-928-3065 for routing, status, archive, or payment questions.
- Visit the Glenwood or Rifle state clerk location shown on the court paperwork.
- Contact the named municipal clerk for a city-code charge.
- Use Courtreporter09@judicial.state.co.us when the requested record is a transcript of spoken proceedings.
Colorado Courts E-Filing is a filing service with role-based document security. It is not a free anonymous browser for the full Garfield County criminal court docket.
Garfield Criminal Appearance Fields
Read each Garfield County criminal calendar entry as a whole. Match the case number, date, hearing type, location, courtroom, and appearance type. Location matters. It separates Garfield County in Glenwood Springs from Garfield County-Rifle. The appearance field may read IN PERSON or TELEPHONE. Or it may say nothing at all. A blank field is not permission to appear remotely.
Conflicting instructions: Follow the newest court-issued notice or order, recheck the live calendar, and call the clerk if the portal and paperwork disagree.
Old exports and printed calendars can go stale after a reset. A new judge does not change the case identity. Ninth Judicial District Administrative Order 2024-03 shows how assignments and later reassignment orders shift the judicial officer, so searching by case number beats relying on a judge's name.
Access Rules for Criminal Dockets
Judicial Branch policy and court rules matter here. Statutes and case-specific orders do too. Together they mainly govern public access to Garfield County criminal dockets. Chief Justice Directive 05-01 controls access to court records. The Colorado Open Records Act covers public agencies broadly. But it is not the primary route into a District or County Court case file. Ask the Combined Courts clerk under the court-record access framework instead.
Key access rules:
Chief Justice Directive 05-01 balances reasonable court-record access with privacy and controls Judicial Branch requests.
C.R.S. § 24-72-701 et seq. governs eligible criminal record sealing procedures.
Colorado Children’s Code restricts many juvenile files and identifying details.
Public, protected, restricted, suppressed, and sealed are five different access levels. A public case may still contain a restricted exhibit. Protected material may come out after redaction. Some juvenile, probate, suppressed, or confidential records require government-issued photo identification, and a missing web result alone proves neither dismissal nor sealing.