Forms, Rules and Statutes
If your court case is in Colorado, you should always use the latest editions of court forms, and the most up to date versions of court rules and statutes. You can do this for free using official State of Colorado websites.
Colorado's Judicial Department Forms ("jdf" forms) By law, jdf forms are accepted in all the state courts. To find them, go to http://www.courts.state.co.us and click on the Self Help/ Forms link [ top center of the web page ]. If you always download your forms from the courts’ website you can be sure that what you are using is up to date, and FREE. Every form has a jdf number, and if you know the number of the form you need, you can search for it using this number. If you have a printed jdf form, you can find its number at the bottom of the form. You will see something like: JDF 1101 R7-12 PETITION FOR DISSOLUTION OF MARRIAGE OR LEGAL SEPARATION, Page 1 of 4 at the bottom of the page. JDF simply tells you that this is a Judicial Department Form. 1101 is the number of the form, and the R7-12 tells you the revision date, e.g. July 2012. If you need to re-print a clean copy of the form, this will help you find it. If you find a more recent revision online, use it. If you are just starting a case, and planning to do the paperwork yourself, let yourself be guided by the instructions available online. For example jdf form 1097 provides "general steps to getting a divorce or legal separation with NO children", and jdf form 1098 is for when children of the marriage are involved. Both of those forms are available online here. There are very many forms available. A place to start looking at topics in the family law category is here. The law actually changes quite frequently, and whenever something changes, you can usually trust to the official websites being brought quickly up to date. If you download a copy of a jdf form from another web site, or if someone hands you a printed version, check the revision against the online version at http://www.courts.state.co.us to make sure what you are working with is up to date. Colorado Statutes & Rules The same applies to finding statutes and court rules. New statutes are being created, and old ones revised constantly. Your best bet is to rely on an officially sanctioned website that is regularly updated. A printed copy, or even an online copy of a statute may have become out of date. Many people file their cases without ever reading a statute. However, reading the statutes referred to in the jdf forms that you file is an easy way to get insight into what you are doing. When it comes to finding statutes, look for these at the LexisNexis website. Go here because LexisNexis is the official publisher of Colorado's statutes, and so the site should be up to date. It is also FREE. |
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I only mediate cases in the State of Colorado Courts, and that is the reason for limiting this page to just Colorado resources.