How to Search the Montezuma County Court Docket
Begin by sorting the case into the right system. Charges filed under a Colorado case class, a state citation, or papers captioned District Court or County Court belong to Montezuma Combined Courts. Ordinance cases from the City of Cortez, Town of Mancos, or Town of Dolores belong to that town's own municipal court. For hearing lists, the Colorado Judicial Docket Search is free and purpose-built. CoCourts does a different job. That paid service delivers real-time register-of-actions data by case number or name.
Always search by case number when you have one. Names get shared, misspelled, or sealed by an access rule. Remember that a result is only a lead. It is not the signed court file. Work through the search in this order:
- Read the court name and case number on the notice, citation, or prior order.
- Use the free docket search for a hearing date and select the Montezuma location.
- Use CoCourts for the chronological register when the case history is needed.
- Compare the latest setting with any reset, continuance, or vacated event.
- Request the actual document or certified copy from the filing court.
Municipal files do not flow into the state vendor system on their own. Older state files can sit off-site too. If an online docket result is missing or murky, call the clerk who owns the case instead of settling for a similar name.
Montezuma County Docket Search Layers
Montezuma County court records sit in three layers. The free docket is a hearing list arranged by date. The paid register of actions, often called the ROA, is the event index. A document file sits underneath. It holds the complaint, motion, order, judgment, decree, ticket, or sentence that gives each entry real meaning. No single layer can stand in for the others.
The official Montezuma Combined Courts page shows the state court entry point. It serves this county's docket.
From that page a reader can reach local notices, the docket calendar, virtual court links, staff, collections, and record services. Filed document images are not among them.
| Layer | Best Use | Custodian or Channel |
|---|---|---|
| Docket calendar | Find a scheduled hearing | Colorado Judicial Docket Search |
| Register of actions | Read the event history | CoCourts commercial service |
| Case documents | Read or certify the filed text | Clerk of Court |
What a Court Docket Shows
A Colorado register of actions is a dated index of case activity. It can show the case class and filing court. Public party roles, charges or civil type appear too. Minute orders, settings, dispositions, and some financial events also show up. One caution matters here. A docket line may say an order was entered without showing the order itself. The clerk's request form describes an ROA as a brief case explanation. It covers charges, sentences, and minute orders.
A case number usually mixes the filing year, case-class letters, and a sequence. The state request form offers 2019T999999 as its sample. Each field of law gets its own letters. Letters like CR, M, T, CV, S, DR, and PR keep criminal, misdemeanor, traffic, civil, small-claims, domestic, and probate work apart. Confirm the class from the record itself rather than guessing.
| Case Number | Year, case class, and sequence identifying the matter. |
|---|---|
| Court and Division | County, district, or magistrate assignment where public. |
| Parties | Public role names, subject to sealing and privacy limits. |
| Entries | Filings, minute orders, notices, and other dated events. |
| Settings | Hearing date, time, type, division, and reset status. |
| Disposition | Recorded outcome, which should be checked against the signed order. |
Montezuma County Docket Divisions
One shared courthouse does not mean one undivided docket. County Division 1 handles the County Court work. District Divisions 2 and 4 carry the general-jurisdiction matters, while Division 3 is the magistrate division. Knowing the exact division narrows a calendar query. It can also stop you from mistaking a felony complaint filed in County Court for the later District Court case.
The official Montezuma judges and staff roster names the local bench and clerk assignments.
Assignments shift as officeholders and staff roles change, so the roster is the best source for current ones. The official Chief Judge Todd J. Plewe profile documents the chief judge's local judicial role.
That profile helps confirm leadership across the two-county 22nd Judicial District. It does not change which county owns a given case.
Which Courts Keep Dockets
The issuing or filing court controls any docket search. District Court holds the felony, major civil, domestic, probate, juvenile, and other general-jurisdiction matters. Montezuma County Court keeps misdemeanors and state traffic. It also takes small claims, protection orders, felony complaints, and civil cases under its jurisdictional ceiling. Cortez, Mancos, and Dolores each keep their own ordinance and municipal citation files.
County Court judgments usually appeal to District Court. District Court appeals ordinarily rise to the Colorado Court of Appeals. A municipal appeal takes a separate route. That route can turn on whether the city court is a court of record.
| Court | Docket Covers | Where to Search |
|---|---|---|
| 22nd Judicial District Court | Felony, major civil, domestic, probate, juvenile | State docket, CoCourts, Combined Courts clerk |
| Montezuma County Court | Misdemeanor, state traffic, small claims, protection orders | State docket, CoCourts, Combined Courts clerk |
| Cortez Municipal Court | Cortez ordinance and municipal citations | City court and administrator |
| Mancos Municipal Court | Mancos ordinance matters | Town Hall |
| Dolores Municipal Court | Dolores ordinance matters | Town Hall and town clerk |
Montezuma County Docket Judges
Judge assignments add context to a docket entry, but check them against the live roster. William Y. Furse sits in District Division 4. Ian J. MacLaren sits in County Division 1. A calendar may name the judicial officer. It may show only the division instead. Both fields matter when confirming a setting.
The official District Judge William Y. Furse profile confirms the district assignment.
The division listing helps tell a District Court event from a County Court setting at the same address. The official County Judge Ian J. MacLaren profile confirms the county assignment.
That assignment is relevant to misdemeanor, lower-dollar civil, small-claims, protection-order, and state traffic dockets.
Finding Court Dates and Settings
Start with the free state docket. Then compare the case number, date, division, and setting type. A daily list might show an arraignment. It might also show a motions hearing, status conference, plea, sentencing, trial, protection-order hearing, or review. An older setting can linger in the register after a new one is added. The latest filed order, or direct confirmation from the court, controls.
A continuance moves a hearing. A vacated setting cancels that one event but does not by itself dismiss the case. Webex access is not automatic either. Under the cited administrative order, a motion is required. It must come at least 48 hours before a hearing when a remote appearance is sought. The full Montezuma County court calendar page separates current settings from old resets.
- Setting
- A scheduled court event with a date, time, and purpose.
- Continuance
- Court permission to move a setting to a later date.
- Vacated
- A canceled setting, not necessarily a closed case.
- Disposition
- The recorded outcome of a charge, claim, or case.
Note: Check court alerts and confirm any changed setting with the clerk before relying on a calendar result.
Montezuma County Docket Location
Head to 865 North Park Street, Suite 100, in Cortez, Colorado 81321. Montezuma Combined Courts handles it all there. District Court, County Court, magistrate matters, collections, and clerk services all operate from this single site. The clerk's counter opens weekdays at 8 a.m. It closes at 4:30 p.m., except state holidays. Call 970-565-1111 with questions. The Montezuma Combined Courts location card lists the full address, hours, fax number, and the clerk's general email, so check it before any in-person docket visit.
Before you make a record request in person, verify the small details. Parking rules, identification requirements, and whether a public terminal is available are best confirmed by phone. The clerk's staff can tell you what to expect at the counter.
Public Access to Dockets
Colorado's court-access rules let you inspect or copy open case records at the counter. Remote access is narrower. A docket register can skip sealed, suppressed, juvenile, mental-health, adoption, dependency, paternity, or other protected matters. Specific filings and personal identifiers may be withheld or redacted too. A blank online search result, in other words, proves nothing about whether a case exists.
The state also draws a line between court case records and Judicial Branch administrative records. Want a sentence order or a decree? That request goes to the filing court, not to a generic county CORA channel. Criminal-justice records and juvenile records face their own statute-specific restrictions. The clerk applies those limits to the actual request.
Key Rules:
Chief Justice Directive 05-01 sets the main public-access policy for Colorado court records.
Colorado Criminal Justice Records Act sections 24-72-301 through 305 govern access decisions for criminal-justice records.
Children's Code section 19-1-304 restricts access to specified juvenile records.
Montezuma County Docket Restrictions
Some Montezuma County docket material simply will not appear. Sealed cases, sealed documents, and protected case classes may be missing or partly hidden, and domestic-relations, probate, juvenile, dependency, adoption, mental-health, and paternity records can all carry limited access. Redactions are common. Social Security numbers, driver-license numbers, financial-account numbers, victim-identifying data, presentence reports, medical material, and juror questionnaires may all be withheld.
Colorado's sealed-case confirmation tool is narrow by design. It lets a defendant check one case for automatic sealing under state law, and it requires identifying data plus a sworn declaration. That is not a public person-search. An authorized requester chasing protected material may need government photo identification or a court order, and the clerk decides based on the request in front of them.
The Clerk and Docket Records
Kacie Lomax is the published Clerk of Court for the Montezuma location. Don't confuse her office with the elected Montezuma County Clerk and Recorder. The state court clerk keeps the District Court and County Court registers, accepts filings, records minute orders and dispositions, supports public inspection, and issues plain, certified, or exemplified copies where access is allowed. The Clerk Kacie Lomax profile gives the public office and its contact route.
A commercial register may show only a bare event description. The clerk's office is where you get the filed document itself.
Clerk of Court, Montezuma Combined Courts
865 North Park Street, Suite 100
Cortez, CO 81321
970-565-1111
MontezumaClerk@judicial.state.co.us
Montezuma County Docket Copy Fees
Copy costs in the Montezuma County court docket system follow the state request form. Copies run $0.25 per page. A party or attorney copy is capped at $15 no matter the page count. A nonparty has no stated maximum. Certification or exemplification adds $20 per document on top of copying. A transcript of judgment costs $25. A certificate of satisfaction is $20.
Other fees stack up differently. A name search costs $5. Off-site retrieval is billed at actual cost. Research and redaction run $30 per hour in 15-minute increments after the first hour. The form says the applicable court normally responds within three business days unless extenuating circumstances exist. Treat that as a response target. It is not a promise that every record lands in your hands in three days.
| Record Service | Published Amount |
|---|---|
| Copy | $0.25 per page |
| Party or attorney copy cap | $15 |
| Certified or exemplified copy | $20 per document |
| Transcript of judgment | $25 |
| Certificate of satisfaction | $20 |
| Name search | $5 |
Montezuma County Docket History
Colorado's current access split took years to build. The Judicial Branch launched an in-house public access system in 2010. It then began developing ICCES in 2011. Civil e-filing moved into ICCES in 2013. Today's Colorado Courts E-Filing system serves attorneys and certain authorized users. It is not the public docket.
That history explains a common frustration: an electronic event can show on a register while the filed image stays out of reach. Public register access runs through approved commercial vendors. The court itself still supplies the document. For older Montezuma County files, the clerk may charge actual retrieval cost. Or the clerk may point you to Colorado State Archives after confirming which office holds the year and case class.
Montezuma County Docket Caseload
Fiscal year 2024 caseload figures show why you can't treat the Montezuma County court docket as one stream. County Court logged 583 civil filings. That total breaks into 298 money cases, 153 domestic-abuse protection-order matters, 64 forcible-entry-and-detainer cases, and 47 risk-protection-order matters. District juvenile filings totaled 147. Criminal category counts covered assault, burglary, DUI, drug, and fraud filings. Those figures don't add up to a complete criminal total.
The numbers describe workload, not private cases. Their practical lesson is to pin down the case class and the court before any docket search. Protection orders, lower-dollar civil claims, juvenile matters, felonies, state traffic citations, and city ordinances can all share a geographic label. Each follows different access rules.
Note the reporting year runs July through June, so these are not calendar-year totals. They also can't predict how long a given Montezuma County docket matter will take. Their value is structural. The filing mix is exactly why you check the court name, case class, and access rule together.
Montezuma County Docket Specialty Work
The 22nd Judicial District DUI Court earned statewide problem-solving accreditation in November 2024. That accreditation runs on a three-year reaccreditation cycle. Specialty participation usually stays tied to the underlying criminal case number. So the public docket for that case keeps tracking its ordinary events. Treatment reports, health details, and staffing notes stay private. Naming the program in a docket does not open those records to the public.
Montezuma has also hosted an Adult Drug Court Program. An older statewide evaluation documented it with outcome figures. Treat those numbers as history, not current caseload. Colorado has veterans and mental-health courts elsewhere, but Montezuma lists neither. Skip any docket reading that assumes otherwise.
Court Dockets by City in Montezuma County
Three incorporated municipalities sit inside Montezuma County. Each keeps its own ordinance and citation records. Those files sit apart from the District Court and County Court files. Cortez posts detailed guidance on its municipal sessions and payments. Mancos runs its court business through Town Hall. Dolores is a court of record and keeps a verbatim record. The city pages below follow the 2020 Census populations and leave out unincorporated places.
Routing matters here. Check a city citation with the named municipal court. For a state-law traffic case, misdemeanor, felony complaint, or civil matter, use Montezuma Combined Courts. The citation and case number are your safest routing clues in any docket search.
Cortez Court Docket
8,766 · Monday municipal sessions and city ordinance cases
Mancos Court Docket
1,196 · Municipal records routed through Mancos Town Hall
Dolores Court Docket
885 · Court-of-record proceedings and town ordinance matters
Map and Directions to Montezuma Combined Courts
District Court and Montezuma County Court files are both kept at Montezuma Combined Courts, 865 North Park Street, Suite 100, in Cortez. The building houses named divisions handling both court levels: Chief Judge Todd Plewe and Judge William Furse for District Court, Judge Ian MacLaren for County Court, and Magistrate Kristen Tarrin. Do not confuse this Cortez location with the separate Dolores Combined Court in Dove Creek or the Town of Dolores Municipal Court.
Clerk of Court, Montezuma Combined Courts
865 North Park Street, Suite 100
Cortez, CO 81321
970-565-1111
Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
The clerk's counter closes at 4:30 p.m. even though the separate collections line takes payments until 5 p.m., so do not assume the later hour applies to records. Official sources publish no parking, security-screening, or ADA entrance details for this building; call ahead or use the court's ADA/accommodations link before a trip.