Can you get your Colorado court filing fee waived?
Colorado decides fee waivers using public benefits, or a judge's decision on your affidavit. There is no published income cutoff, so no calculator can tell you the answer. What follows is the actual standard a judge applies.
Ways to qualify in Colorado
- Public benefits. Receiving SSI, TANF, SNAP, Aid to the Blind, Aid to the Needy and Disabled, or Old Age Pension counts toward qualifying, often without any income showing at all.
- Inability to pay. You explain your income, expenses and debts on a sworn form, and the court decides whether paying the fee would leave you unable to cover basic needs. This route has no income cutoff.
Colorado publishes a dollar income table for fee waivers, updated annually, rather than a percentage that could be applied to the federal guidelines. The commonly cited 125% figure does not reconcile with the published table, so no percentage is asserted here. Confirm the current table with the clerk.
What to file
Colorado uses the Motion to File Without Payment of Filing Fee (JDF 205). File it at the same time as your petition or response, not after.
Colorado does not publish this in one clear place, so confirm the current form and standard with the clerk in your county before you rely on it.
This page explains how Colorado decides fee waivers. It is not legal advice, and it cannot tell you how a judge will rule on your case. Virdix is a document preparation service, not a law firm.
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