This summary is grounded in the 2025 Colorado Revised Statutes Title 24 capture, the official Legislative Council fee page, SB23-286 session law, and official bill pages for recent attempted or pending CORA amendments. The controlling current statute is part 2 of article 72 of title 24, C.R.S.
Colorado declares that all public records are open for inspection by any person at reasonable times, except as provided in CORA or otherwise specifically provided by law. CORA creates a presumption of access only after the requested material is a "public record" within the statutory definition.
"Public records" include writings made, maintained, or kept by the state, agencies, institutions, certain higher-education nonprofit corporations, political subdivisions, or local-government-financed entities for use in functions required or authorized by law or administrative rule or involving receipt or expenditure of public funds.
The definition includes elected officials' correspondence unless it is work product, lacks a demonstrable connection to official functions or public funds, is confidential constituent assistance correspondence, or is subject to mandatory nondisclosure. Use of public equipment or public compensation does not itself convert a non-public writing into a public record.
"Writings" include documentary materials regardless of form, including digitally stored data and e-mail, but not computer software.
Criminal justice records subject to part 3 are excluded from the CORA public-record definition.
Work product includes intra- or inter-agency advisory or deliberative materials assembled for elected officials that express opinion or are deliberative and assist decision-making within the official's authority. It also includes bill/amendment drafting materials and some legislative staff documents.
Work product does not include final decisions, final fiscal or performance audits, final accounting or financial records, materials distributed to public-body members for use in a public meeting, or final factual compilations from public sources, subject to the statute's legislative-document caveats.
Public records must be open to inspection by any person at reasonable times. A custodian generally may not require identification except where a record is confidential and accessible only by a person in interest or another statute requires identification.
If the records are not in the recipient's custody, the recipient must notify the applicant and, if known, state the reason, location, and custodian. If an official custodian holds elected-official correspondence, the custodian must consult with the elected official before allowing inspection to determine whether the correspondence is a public record.
If records are in active use, storage, or otherwise not readily available, the custodian must set a date and hour for inspection. A reasonable time is presumed to be three working days or less. The period may be extended by up to seven working days when extenuating circumstances exist, with written notice within the three-day period. Extenuating circumstances are limited and cannot apply to a single, specifically identified document.
Election-related county clerk requests have special extension rules during election periods, with carveouts for mass media and newsperson requesters.
Digital records must generally be produced in the searchable or sortable format in which they are stored, unless otherwise requested or an exception applies. If a public record is available digitally, the custodian must transmit a digital copy by e-mail or another agreed method when e-mail size prevents transmission. A custodian may not convert a digital public record into a non-searchable format before transmission, except as permitted by subsection (3.5). A custodian unable to produce the requested format must provide an alternate format or denial and a written declaration explaining why.
Mandatory denial applies where inspection would be contrary to state statute, federal statute or regulation, Supreme Court rules or court order, or joint legislative lobbying rules.
Discretionary public-interest denial categories include law-enforcement investigatory records, tests, bona fide research projects, real estate appraisals before acquisition, certain transportation bid-analysis data, future-communication contact information, security and critical-infrastructure details, ongoing civil or administrative investigations, and sensitive species-location data.
Mandatory denial with person-in-interest access covers categories such as medical, mental-health, sociological, and scholastic data; personnel files; letters of reference; trade secrets and privileged/confidential commercial, financial, geological, or geophysical data; student addresses and telephone numbers; library records; utility/recreation user information; sexual-harassment complaint records; legislative workplace harassment records; non-finalist executive-position applicant records; disability-related records; deliberative-process records; and many specialized statutory categories.
The statute often preserves public access to specific records even within broad privacy categories. Examples include employment contracts, amounts paid or benefits provided under settlement agreements, applications of past/current employees, final performance ratings, final sabbatical reports, and compensation paid to public employees.
Section 24-72-204(3)(a)(XIII) codifies protection for records under the common-law governmental or deliberative-process privilege when the material is so candid or personal that disclosure is likely to stifle honest and frank government discussion, unless waived. The custodian must provide a sworn statement specifically describing each withheld document, why it is privileged, and why disclosure would cause substantial injury to the public interest. If the applicant requests, the custodian must apply to district court, where the court weighs honest and frank discussion against public scrutiny, decision quality, and public confidence.
A requester may obtain copies, printouts, photographs, or electronic transmission when inspection is allowed. No transmission fee may be charged for e-mail transmission.
The ordinary copy fee may not exceed twenty-five cents per standard page. A custodian may not charge a per-page fee for records provided in digital or electronic format.
Data manipulation to generate a record in a form not used by the public body may be charged at actual cost.
Research and retrieval fees are allowed only if the custodian has published a written policy before receiving the request. The first hour is free. The statutory text states a thirty-dollar maximum, adjusted every five years. The official Legislative Council fee page captured in this pass states that the maximum hourly research and retrieval fee increased to $41.37 effective July 1, 2024, and that agencies must revise and publish policies to charge the adjusted amount.
If a custodian accepts credit card or electronic payment for other products or services, the custodian must allow CORA requesters to pay associated fees or deposits by credit card or electronic payment and may pass through processor charges.
A person denied inspection or alleging a digital-format violation may apply to the district court where the record is found for an order to show cause. Except for executive-session-record applications, the requester must give at least fourteen days' written notice before filing, or three business days' notice with a factual basis for expedited need.
The hearing must be held at the earliest practical time. Unless the court finds the denial proper, it orders inspection and awards costs and reasonable attorney fees to the prevailing applicant. If denial was proper, the custodian receives costs and reasonable fees only if the action was frivolous, vexatious, or groundless.
CORA contains a litigation-specific fee limitation. A person who has sued a state or local public body cannot recover costs and attorney fees in a CORA action for records of the public body being sued when the court finds that the records relate to the pending litigation and are discoverable under Colorado civil rules.
Custodians may also apply to court for permission to restrict disclosure where disclosure would do substantial injury to the public interest or when, after reasonable diligence and inquiry, the custodian cannot determine in good faith whether disclosure is prohibited. The custodian bears the burden.
SB23-286 materially modernized CORA practice by restricting identification demands, strengthening digital searchable/sortable format rights, prohibiting pre-production conversion to non-searchable records, barring per-page fees for digital/electronic records, requiring electronic payment when available for other services, adding e-mail retention reporting, and making certain elected-official sexual-harassment records available when culpability is found.
SB25-077 was vetoed on April 17, 2025. Its official bill-page summary shows a proposed package that would have extended ordinary response time from three to five working days, expanded extensions, created direct-solicitation provisions, added cost-breakdown rights, and altered fee rules. It is not current law but identifies active pressure points.
SB26-107 was introduced in the 2026 Regular Session and, as captured, proposes another CORA modification package similar to the vetoed 2025 bill, with additional late-response free research/retrieval time. It was not treated as enacted law in this pass.
Future CORA analysis should first determine whether the requested material is a public record, a criminal justice record, a judicial-branch court record, or a record governed by a specialized statute. Only after that classification should the agent analyze timing, format, fees, exemptions, privileges, redaction, person-in-interest access, and remedies.