Colorado Divorce Online Records - 2007 Divorce Law Changes

Changes to Colorado divorce law now limit access to Colorado divorce online records. Effective January 1, 2007, the Colorado Department of Public Heath and Environment has adopted a policy which interprets and includes their official reports of Colorado divorce and family law (domestic relations) records as confidential "vital records" within the definition of Colorado's vital statistics records laws.

As a result, online access to the statewide database for Colorado dissolution of marriage (divorce), legal separation, and declaration of invalidity (annulment) records has ceased. Instead, given this interpretation, access to these Colorado divorce-related records requires proof (as do other Colorado vital records) of:

• an important family or legal-representative relationship by the requesting party, or
• a direct and tangible interest in the record.

Accordingly, Colorado online divorce records are now available only after formal application establishing legitimacy to access these confidential records. Formal application is also mandated for in-person, fax and mail inquiries.

(In accord with this new interpretation of Colorado law, Colorado's Office of the State Registrar of Vital Statistics has a new standard form to secure verification of dissolution of marriage and related records. Application includes submitting appropriate documentation of identity — regulations detail in exhaustive fashion acceptable forms of proof — and of the reason for requested access to these divorce records.)

This change to Colorado divorce online records access presumably arises from increasing concerns of potential misuse of information in divorce-related records, especially for purposes of identity theft.

Note: Records of Colorado dissolution of dissolution of marriage (divorce), legal separation, and declaration of invalidity (annulment) remain available directly from the clerk of the county or judicial district of the decree's issuance. As noted in other articles on our website blog (see, for example, Ain't Nobody's Business! Increased Privacy for Colorado Divorce Records), policies regarding public access to Colorado divorce records from the clerk's office vary by county or judicial district.