CORA/CCJRA Records Request

Colorado Open Records Act/Colorado Criminal Justice Records Act (1)

Pursuant to Colorado Revised Statutes §24-72-200.1 et seq., and §24-72-301 et seq.:

Because the District Attorney’s Office is a criminal justice agency, most of its records will be criminal justice records, and therefore records requests will generally fall under the provisions of the CCJRA.  Criminal justice records for a specific case are not subject to release until after the case has been closed, when no further court action is pending.  The recommended response times in CORA are not applicable to records covered by the CCJRA.  Further, under CCJRA, with the exception of records of “official action,” as defined by statute, the disclosure of other criminal justice records is at the discretion of the custodian, and may be denied where the custodian believes disclosure would be contrary to the public interest.

Office Procedure for Handling Records Requests
The length of time needed to respond to requests for criminal justice records governed by CCJRA will often take longer and will depend upon the nature of the request.  The District Attorney's Office receives a large number of criminal justice records requests each year.  Many of these requests require time-consuming review and most require redactions.  For these reasons, and depending upon the amount of records requested, criminal justice records requests may take weeks and even months to process.

The requesting party will be notified if the requested records are not available, if the records are not covered by CORA, or they will not be released under CCJRA. A request received after noon or any day the Office is officially closed will be considered received as of the following working day.  For CORA requests, the Office may add up to a seven‐working‐day extension if extenuating circumstances apply as described in section 24‐72‐203(3)(b), C.R.S..  The Office will provide all findings of extenuating circumstances to the requestor in writing. Broad, general requests will likely be more costly to the requestor because of the staff time required to fulfill these requests.  The Office may contact the requestor in an attempt to clarify or narrow a request.  The District Attorney’s Office is not required to create reports or compilations of computerized data or to modify existing records in order to create a new record in response to a records request. 

Fees
When a substantial request is made, which the Office considers to be a request requiring the production of more than 25 pages of documents or more than two hours of staff time to locate or produce records, the Office will charge the requestor for all copying expenses and for staff time in accordance with section 24‐72‐205(5)(a),(6) C.R.S., section 24-72-306(1), C.R.S., and other applicable law.  In extraordinary circumstances, the use of a third party contractor may be necessary and will be discussed with the requestor in advance.

The Office may require an advance deposit of the expected cost before it will begin completing the request.  Costs associated with a request must be paid in full before the Office will produce the records. Payment must be made by check or money order made out to the Denver District Attorney’s Office.  The Office does not accept cash, credit cards or any other forms of electronic payment.  Payment of fees may be required before records/data will be released.  We will notify you when your request is complete and what the total amount due is.  For victims and their families, the office will charge for requests that consume more than five hours of staff time.

For additional information, please visit the Records Request page on our website: www.denverda.org.  By signing below, you agree that the above information is accurate and that you are not requesting these records for the solicitation of business.

Click “Submit Your Request” to complete this form.