Find Las Animas County Court Dockets

How to Search the Las Animas County Court Docket

Start your Las Animas County court docket search with the free Colorado Judicial Branch Docket Search filtered to Las Animas County. It lists hearings on the calendar. It does not track a case from start to finish. Felonies, larger civil matters, domestic cases, probate, juvenile, and mental-health cases belong to District Court. Pick that level. County Court covers the rest. It handles misdemeanors, traffic, small claims, protection orders, and civil claims below $25,000. It also takes the early steps of a felony. Unsure which level? Search both.

A precise case number works best. Colorado builds it from a four-digit year. Case-class letters and a sequence of one to six digits follow. You can also search by party, business, or attorney name. A date by itself will not work; the form demands at least one more filter. Keep the county set to Las Animas, or results will leak in from other Colorado courts.

1. Open the county-filtered official docket search.
2. Choose District or County Court and a date range.
3. Enter the year, class, and sequence, or use a name or attorney field.
4. Read the current date, time, hearing label, appearance mode, location, and courtroom.
5. Ask the Combined Court clerk for the ROA or a filed document when the calendar is not enough.

Note: A free calendar match proves a hearing is scheduled. It does not give you the full Las Animas County case history.

Las Animas Docket Search Fields

The Las Animas County court docket form offers several ways into the same hearing list. The case-number route cuts cleanest. Names shift and get misspelled. When the number is a mystery, the fields for individuals, businesses, and attorneys take over. Date options range from the current week to wider windows. A six-month search limit caps them, along with whatever the court has actually scheduled.

The printable Las Animas results draw on the same calendar data. Export and print tools make handy snapshots. They go stale fast. A case can reset, close, or pick up a new court order.

Colorado's county-filtered interface lays out how courts publish hearings without opening the full case register. The filter screen handles a focused hearing lookup. But the chronological record and filed copies still come from the clerk.

What a Court Docket Shows

On the public Judicial Branch site, a docket means a list of scheduled hearings. A Las Animas County entry can carry the hearing date, start time, or duration. It also lists the case number and hearing type. Courthouse, courtroom, and the in-person or virtual setting can appear too. That is plenty for finding a hearing. It will not reconstruct every filing, ruling, or outcome.

Dig deeper and you reach the Register of Action. It is usually called the ROA. This chronological summary can include charges, sentences, and minute orders. Filed documents sit in a third layer apart. A complaint, decree, judgment, or sentencing order must come from the court itself. Paid vendor ROAs are unofficial. They never include the document images.

Las Animas Docket Case Classes

Case-class letters tighten any Las Animas County court docket search. The official form lists C, CR, CV, CW, DR, JD, JV, M, PR, R, S, and T. No local decoder explains every letter. Read the class alongside the court type you selected and the case category printed on the court papers.

CR, M, T, and R

Classes that can appear in criminal, misdemeanor, traffic, or related searches, depending on court and matter.

CV and C

Civil classes whose jurisdiction also depends on the court level and claim.

DR, JV, and PR

Domestic-relations, juvenile, and probate categories that can carry added access limits.

CW

A water class tied to Colorado's specialized water jurisdiction.

ROA

The Register of Action, a chronological case summary rather than the free hearing calendar.

An empty result does not mean the case is dead. Maybe the class was wrong. The matter may sit at the other court level, the date window may miss its next hearing, or access rules may keep it off public results.

Which Courts Keep Dockets

Las Animas County pairs with Huerfano County to form Colorado's Third Judicial District. One Combined Court clerk in Trinidad serves District Court and County Court alike. The split is between court types. It is not between separate elected county records offices. Municipal courts keep their own town ordinance and municipal traffic files.

The Colorado trial-court jurisdiction outline spells out these statewide court roles. It situates Las Animas County inside the unified court system.

That hierarchy tells you which docket to search and where an appeal lands. County Court appeals climb to District Court. Most District Court appeals move on to the Colorado Court of Appeals.

Las Animas Combined Court Dockets

The state court landing page labels the local operation Las Animas County Combined Court. For searchers, that matters. One counter serves records from both state trial levels. Ask for District Court or County Court and name the case class. A vague request for "the county docket" can bury the jurisdiction detail that counts.

The official Las Animas County court page posts local notices and court links. Payment information and jury resources appear there too. The no-fax-filing warning is posted as well.

Check the county page before any trip or filing. Local notices can shift faster than saved search results.

A separate Colorado government overview of the Judicial Branch shows why the clerk belongs to a unified state system.

This structure differs from states where an elected county clerk independently maintains trial-court records.

Finding Court Dates and Settings

Pull the newest Las Animas County court docket result first. Write down the case number, setting date, and time. Note the duration, hearing label, courthouse, room, and appearance mode as well. Local labels range from advisement, arraignment, and appearance on bond. Others run to pretrial conference, plea hearing, status conference, sentencing, probation revocation, Rule 120 hearing, mediation, and court trial. A label names the type of event. It does not tell you what the judge decided.

County Court civil return dates run Monday through Friday at 10:30 a.m. in Las Animas County. A return date is a setting to respond or appear, not a judgment. Hold the newest docket result beside any notice or order already in hand. See a conflict or a late change? Call the Combined Court. The full Las Animas County court calendar process also covers virtual settings and resets. A saved calendar entry may clash with newer court information. Then the current order and clerk confirmation control.

Note: A saved calendar entry can conflict with newer court information. The current order and clerk confirmation control.

Las Animas Virtual Court Settings

Las Animas County runs virtual hearings in Courtroom D. The live page splits participant access from public observer access. Someone scheduled to appear should follow the link and role given in current court directions. An old bookmark is not good enough. The official Courtroom D instructions are the direct source for joining and courtroom conduct. Colorado's 2026 digital-court transition makes the live link matter. The platform may change. The hearing notice and the official county page remain the control points.

Public Access to Dockets

Not every Colorado court file sits open online. CJD 05-01 sets the main access framework. It governs case records, while Judicial Branch administrative records follow a separate public-access rule. Criminal files stay presumptively open under Criminal Procedure Rule 55.1 unless a law, directive, or order restricts access.

Juvenile, adoption, dependency, mental-health, sealed, and individually restricted material may not appear. Protected identifiers get redacted. "Restricted" does not mean destroyed. The court may keep an inaccessible version on file while allowing a redacted public record.

Las Animas ROAs and Court Records

A docket, an ROA, and a filed document answer different questions in Las Animas County. The docket answers when and where a hearing is set. The ROA gives a chronological summary. A filed document supplies the actual text. That covers a complaint, order, judgment, or decree. It also covers a parenting plan, will, or protection order. Certification confirms a clerk-issued copy is authentic.

The Judicial Branch ROA access guide points public historical searches toward paid vendors. It warns that vendor output is unofficial. The guide also notes that vendors do not provide filed document images. For the ROA or an exact court record, use the clerk's statewide request form.

The Clerk and Docket Records

The Clerk of Court, Las Animas County Combined Court keeps the District and County Court records. Joanne Montero also serves as Probate Registrar. The record counter sits in Room 304 of the Las Animas County Courthouse. Public hours pause for lunch. Plan a visit around that break. Bring the case number, or party names with an approximate year and case type.

The location page lists a fax number. The county court page says the Combined Court does not accept fax filings, though. A listed fax does not mean you can file or request copies by it. The statewide online form is the clearest remote path. Need a local delivery method? Call the court before mailing anything.

The official courthouse location source posts the public address, hours, phone, and service contacts.

Both state trial-court levels share the Trinidad location. Municipal records stay with the city or town court that issued the matter.

Las Animas Record Fees

Plain copies run $0.25 per page. Certification adds $20 per document. A transcript of judgment costs $25, while a certificate of satisfaction costs $20, and the two are not interchangeable. A transcript of judgment is a clerk record used for enforcement, not a word-for-word hearing transcript.

Parties face a $15 cap. It covers copies of pleadings, papers, documents, or exhibits. They must be filed in their own case under the posted schedule. Nonparty totals work differently. Pages, certification, search time, redaction, and retrieval drive those totals. The court normally sends an initial response to an online request within three business days. That response is not a delivery promise for a broad or archived order.

Las Animas Docket Judges and Staff

Chief Judge John "Clay" McKisson leads the public roster. District Judge Pierce L. Fowler serves alongside him. County Judges Matthew Berumen and John Mochel serve too. So do Magistrate Stephen Talbot, Clerk Joanne Montero, and Court Executive Bob Kreiman. A docket entry may not show the judge. The hearing notice or the clerk can confirm the assigned judicial officer. The current judges and staff roster is the authoritative public source for those roles.

Use the live roster. An older order, city calendar, or archived directory will not do. The official clerk profile for Joanne Montero confirms the clerk and probate roles.

It also separates the state court clerk from municipal custodians in Trinidad and the smaller towns.

Las Animas Court Docket Scale

The Third Judicial District is Colorado's least-populated judicial district. Its official 2025 overview reports three-year districtwide averages of 1,065 District Court matters and 3,134 County Court matters. Those figures span both Las Animas and Huerfano Counties. They are averages, not annual Las Animas-only filings.

One combined office handles a wide range of case types. The scale figures help explain how that works. Still, they tell you nothing about how many cases sit in any single Las Animas County docket.

Court Dockets by City in Las Animas County

Las Animas County contains six incorporated places. The five largest by the 2020 Census have city pages here. Each page leads with the municipal channel where one is documented. State-law cases then go to the Combined Court. Trinidad offers a dedicated citation search. Aguilar works best through its clerk, with a historical calendar also available. Cokedale, Kim, and Starkville post no public city court portal. Check your summons and confirm with the clerk.

Branson came in sixth and sits outside the required five-page city set. Its population is local context only, not a count of municipal cases.

Map and Directions to the Las Animas County Courthouse

District and County Court records for Las Animas County are kept at Room 304 of the Las Animas County Courthouse, 200 E. 1st Street, in Trinidad. It is the same combined-court counter for both trial-court levels; collections uses Room 301 in the same building.

The counter closes for lunch, so plan around the noon-to-1:00 gap. Official sources did not state parking, transit, security or device rules, locker availability, or whether a lobby terminal offers more than the free web calendar, so calling 719-846-3316 before a special trip is the safer plan. The courthouse does not accept fax filings despite a listed fax number.