Witness Background Checks in Colorado

01Conviction research

How Colorado's Felony Impeachment Statute Shapes the Research

Colorado handles prior-conviction impeachment largely through statute. Under C.R.S. § 13-90-101, a felony conviction may generally be shown to affect a witness's credibility, and it can be proved like any other fact, including by the witness's own admission. In civil actions, the statute generally bars a felony conviction from more than five years before the testimony. That makes dates critical, so we report conviction, sentencing and release dates for every felony found. Our felony defense investigators apply the same precision on the criminal side.

Misdemeanors and arrests stand on different footing, and their use is a question for counsel and the court, but they can still reveal bias, prior statements or a relationship with a party. We report everything relevant and mark what is a conviction, what is pending and what was dismissed or deferred. When a cooperating witness has open cases, the timing of any plea agreement can matter as much as the record itself, and our appointed counsel support team tracks those dockets.

02Records sources

Where Witness Background Checks in Colorado Start: Court Registers and the CBI

Online searches give leads, not proof. Colorado's state court registers of actions are available through the Judicial Branch's approved vendors and list civil, domestic, small claims, felony and misdemeanor cases, but they do not include documents and do not cover every case type. Denver County Court is administered separately. The CBI's Internet Criminal History Check is name-based, covers Colorado records only, excludes sealed arrests and cannot be notarized. We use those tools to find leads, then confirm every significant entry through our Colorado records research.

Confirmation means ordering copies from the court that handled the case. For impeachment or a motion, counsel usually needs the judgment of conviction and related documents, certified by the clerk, and we request them on the case's timeline. Witnesses with history outside Colorado require the same process in each state. Our Thornton investigators and Littleton team handle many metro courthouse requests in person.

• Register entries treated as leads, not findings
• CBI name search for Colorado criminal history
• Certified judgments ordered from the filing court
• Same process in every state tied to the witness

03Motive to shade

Relationships, Employment and Reasons a Witness May Lean

Bias is often more powerful than a conviction. A witness who works for the defendant's brother-in-law, owes a party money, shares a business with them or posted about the case online has a reason to lean. We map employment, business filings with the Colorado Secretary of State, property records, civil suits and public social media to find those ties. Our corporate collusion investigations use similar methods for business relationships.

Prior statements matter too. Court records sometimes contain affidavits, testimony or pleadings where a witness described the same events differently, and published posts can capture an early version of a story. We collect those statements with dates and sources so counsel can decide how to use them. For employment cases, our workplace harassment investigators understand how coworker witnesses can be influenced by their own job security, and our wrongful termination team handles related witness work.

04Retained and opposing experts

Vetting Retained and Opposing Expert Witnesses

Experts are attacked on credentials, consistency and money. We verify degrees and certifications, review professional licensing and disciplinary records in Colorado and every state the expert has practiced, and search for prior testimony, published opinions and court decisions that discussed their work. An accident reconstructionist who testified to the opposite conclusion in a similar case is worth knowing about. Our insurance investigations team knows the questions to ask about experts who appear in injury and claims litigation.

We also look at how much of an expert's income comes from testifying, whether they work mostly for one side and whether marketing materials overstate experience. Vetting your own expert before designation avoids surprises in deposition. When the expert's field involves medicine, nursing homes or correctional care, our retirement home abuse and correctional facility abuse investigators know the standards those experts discuss.

• Degrees, certifications and licenses verified
• Disciplinary history in every state of practice
• Prior testimony and published opinions collected
• Testifying income and side preferences assessed

05Testing perception

Testing What an Eyewitness Could Actually See

Colorado conditions can change what a witness could perceive. Snow glare at midday, early winter darkness, low sun in the eyes of drivers heading west on I-70 or US 6 toward the foothills, and sudden mountain storms all affect visibility. We visit the scene at the same time of day and, where possible, the same season, measure distances and sight lines, photograph obstructions and pull weather data for the date. Our hit-and-run investigators do this work regularly on crash cases.

Scene work also checks the details: whether a streetlight was working, whether a fence or parked trailer blocked the view, and whether a business camera covered the location. Footage is often overwritten within days, so early requests matter. Our investigators work from public places and lawful vantage points and do not enter private property without permission. For crashes on Western Slope highways, our Grand Junction investigators and Durango team handle the site visits.

06Getting them to court

Locating Witnesses and Serving Subpoenas Under C.R.C.P. 45

A good witness is useless if no one can find them. We locate witnesses who moved, changed numbers or left Colorado, starting with remote research and moving to field work when needed. Under C.R.C.P. 45, any person at least 18 who is not a party may serve a subpoena anywhere in Colorado, and one day's mileage generally must be tendered. Lead times under the rule run at least 48 hours for trial testimony, seven days for a deposition and 14 days for documents. Our Colorado process servers handle that service.

Colorado residents generally attend depositions in the county where they live, work or do business, and nonresidents within 40 miles of where they were served, unless the court orders otherwise. The issuer must also serve a copy on all parties right after serving the nonparty. For witnesses who left the state, counsel handles the other state's procedure, and our lost-contact locate service finds them first under the $1,000 field-work minimum.

07Interviews

Witness Interviews and the Lines We Do Not Cross

Interviews follow strict rules. Our investigators identify themselves and who they work for, do not pressure or mislead, and stop when a witness declines. We never contact a represented party directly. Colorado is a one-party consent state, so an investigator who is part of a conversation can generally record it, but we follow counsel's instructions on recording and disclose it whenever counsel prefers. The Colorado recording law guide explains the eavesdropping and wiretapping statutes.

We do not offer witnesses anything for testimony, coach answers or suggest what they should remember. Notes and recordings are preserved and delivered to counsel promptly. If a witness raises safety concerns, such as fear of retaliation, we tell counsel at once so protective steps can be considered. Because Colorado no longer licenses investigators at the state level, attorneys should vet firms carefully, and our guide to vetting a Colorado investigator lists the questions worth asking.

Services

Witness research services in Colorado

• Basic witness checkIdentity, Colorado court registers, the CBI criminal history search and prior-state records for one lay witness, delivered remotely for $102 under a written scope.Learn more
• Conviction confirmationFelony and misdemeanor entries verified with certified judgments from the filing court, with conviction and release dates reported for impeachment analysis.Learn more
• Bias and relationship mappingEmployment, business filings, property, civil suits and public social media traced to find ties between a witness and the parties or their families.Learn more
• Prior statement collectionEarlier testimony, affidavits, pleadings and public posts describing the same events gathered with dates and sources for use by trial counsel.Learn more
• Expert witness vettingCredentials, licensing and discipline, prior testimony, published opinions and testifying income are reviewed for retained and opposing experts well before any deposition.Learn more
• Eyewitness scene testingSite visits at matching times and conditions, with measurements, photographs, weather data and footage requests that test what a witness could see.Learn more
• Witness locatesRemote research and field work to find witnesses who moved, changed numbers or left Colorado, under the $1,000 field-work skip trace minimum.Learn more
• Subpoena serviceTrial, deposition and document subpoenas served across Colorado with mileage tendered and a signed declaration of service returned to counsel.Learn more
• Witness interviewsDisclosed, professional interviews of willing witnesses, documented in notes or recordings according to counsel's instructions and delivered to the trial team promptly afterward.Learn more

How it works

How witness research works

1. 01

   Identify the witnesses

   Counsel lists the witnesses and the issues each one touches. We recommend the research depth for each person and confirm the scope and price in writing before starting.

2. 02

   Records first

   We run identity, court, CBI and licensing searches, then order certified copies of anything significant so findings are confirmed rather than taken from online indexes alone.

3. 03

   Field and scene work

   Where the case calls for it, we visit scenes, test sight lines, request footage, locate missing witnesses and conduct disclosed interviews, all documented with dates, times and methods.

4. 04

   Trial-ready report

   Counsel receives a written report per witness with sources, certified records and open questions, organized for impeachment, motions or trial preparation as the case requires.

Compare

Colorado Witness Research Scenarios and Pricing

Statewide coverage

Witness research across Colorado

We research witnesses for cases in every Colorado county and in federal court. Metro work centers on Denver, Golden, Centennial, Brighton and Castle Rock, while southern cases run through Colorado Springs and Pueblo. Northern Colorado matters in Fort Collins, Loveland and Greeley often involve witnesses who commute across county lines. Western Slope cases in Grand Junction and Durango usually require scene work. See the Colorado investigations home page for statewide coverage, or the Mississippi investigations and process serving page for that region.

• Denver
• Littleton
• Thornton
• Pueblo
• Grand Junction
• Durango
• All of Colorado

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Every service

Investigations available in Colorado

Every service below is available in Colorado and across Colorado, run by the same Delator Group leadership that manages our Tennessee casework. Choose a service to read how it works in Colorado.

Service areas

Private investigators across Colorado