duistatelaws.com Key takeaways
- Denver County Court is both a municipal and a state court — the only arrangement of its kind in Colorado — and it hears the misdemeanor DUI.
- The Criminal Division sits seven days a week, excluding city holidays, so an in-custody case does not wait for Monday.
- 7 days for the license hearing request. That is also the day the temporary permit expires and the day the revocation starts.
- The building you report to depends on the division: criminal at 520 West Colfax, traffic at 1437 Bannock, bonding at 490 West Colfax.
- Colorado runs DWAI as a lesser charge with no BAC floor, and Denver County Court hears those too.
from the date you were served with the notice to demand a hearing from Colorado Division of Motor Vehicles. The request goes to the DMV, not to the court, and no judge in City and County of Denver will make it for you. C.R.S. § 42-2-126(6)(a).
One structural point before anything else, because it explains why Denver is not like the rest of Colorado. Everywhere else in the state, the county court is part of the state judicial branch. In Denver it is not: Denver County Court describes itself as “both a municipal and a state court”, it is funded and staffed by the City and County of Denver, and it processes on average 100,000 cases a year. Your misdemeanor DUI goes there.
The practical consequences are small but real. The court keeps its own public portal rather than the state one, its own clerk, and its own holiday calendar. And because it is a city court as well as a state one, its Criminal Division runs seven days a week, excluding city holidays, so that people in custody are brought before a judge without waiting for the next business day.
The same diagram as a table
| Step | Criminal case — decided by a court | License case — decided by the state licensing agency |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arrest and booking, hour 0 | Notice of suspension served, day 0 |
| 2 | Charge filed by the prosecutor | Deadline to demand a hearing, frequently 7 to 30 days |
| 3 | First court setting, on a date the court picks | Hearing held if the request was filed — the suspension is stayed until the judge rules |
| 4 | One or more pretrial settings | Suspension takes effect automatically with no hearing |
| 5 | Trial, plea or dismissal | — |
| Clock | Weeks to months. No filing deadline runs against the driver. | Counted in days from the notice, and fixed by statute. |
Where your Denver DUI case will be heard
Denver County Court is not one building. It is four, within about four blocks of Civic Center Park, and which one you report to depends on which division your paperwork names rather than on where you were stopped.
Denver County Court — Criminal and Municipal Divisions
- Hears
- Misdemeanor DUI, DUI per se and DWAI
- Building
- Lindsey-Flanigan Courthouse
- Address
- 520 West Colfax Avenue, Denver, CO 80204
- Detail
- Clerk’s Office, Room 160
- Hours
- Monday to Friday, 7:30am to 4:00pm
- Phone
- 720-337-0410
- Why it matters
- The Criminal Division sits seven days a week, excluding city holidays, so that people in custody are brought before the court without waiting for Monday.
Denver County Court — Traffic and Civil Divisions
- Hears
- State traffic violations and civil matters; not the DUI
- Building
- City and County Building
- Address
- 1437 Bannock Street, Denver, CO 80202
- Detail
- Clerk’s Office, Room 135
- Hours
- Monday to Friday, 8:00am to 4:00pm
- Phone
- 720-865-7840
- Why it matters
- A single stop often produces a traffic citation as well as the DUI, and the two are called in different buildings four blocks apart.
In-custody courtrooms, bonding and warrants
- Hears
- First appearance and bond, before anything reaches Colfax Avenue
- Building
- Van Cise-Simonet Detention Center
- Address
- 490 West Colfax Avenue, Denver, CO 80204
- Detail
- Bonding Office on the 1st floor; courtrooms 2100 and 2300 on the 2nd
- Hours
- Bonding: Monday to Friday 7:00am to 7:00pm, weekends and city holidays 7:00am to 5:00pm. Courtrooms: 8:00am to 6:00pm
- Phone
- 720-337-0062
- Why it matters
- This is where an in-custody DUI case starts, not at the courthouse.
Probation Division
- Hears
- Supervision, intake and driving-under-restraint appointments
- Building
- Minoru Yasui Building
- Address
- 303 West Colfax Avenue, Denver, CO 80204
- Detail
- 8th floor
- Hours
- Monday to Friday, 7:00am to 4:30pm
- Phone
- 720-913-8300
- Why it matters
- Where the sentence is actually administered once it has been imposed.
The division most people get wrong is the first two. A single traffic stop commonly produces both a DUI and an ordinary traffic citation, and those are handled by different divisions in different buildings: the DUI at 520 West Colfax, the citation at 1437 Bannock. Appearing at Bannock Street on a DUI setting date is a wasted morning and a missed appearance.
Felony impaired driving — a fourth offense under the three-prior rule in C.R.S. section 42-4-1301(1)(a) — goes to the Denver District Court for the Second Judicial District, which sits in the same Lindsey-Flanigan Courthouse on Colfax Avenue. Denver County Court conducts felony advisements, sets bond and holds preliminary hearings, so the first appearance on a felony case still happens in the county court before the file moves upstairs.
The Colorado Judicial Branch tells jurors reporting to the Lindsey-Flanigan Courthouse that the doors open at 7:00am on Monday and Tuesday and 7:30am on Wednesday and Thursday, and to allow 60 minutes for screening on Monday and Tuesday and 30 minutes on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. All persons and belongings are subject to search.
Docket mornings are the worst of it. If your setting is early, the screening line is the part of the day that will make you late, not the drive.
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The first seven days
The criminal case and the license case start at the same moment and run on separate tracks, and in Colorado the license track is the one with the short fuse. When the officer took your license, C.R.S. section 42-2-126(5)(c) had them hand you a temporary permit valid for seven days. Section 42-2-126(6)(a) makes the revocation effective seven days after you received the notice. Both clocks run out on the same day.
The only thing that changes that is a written request for a hearing received by the Division of Motor Vehicles inside the same seven-day period. If it arrives in time and a temporary permit is issued, the effective date of the revocation is stayed until a final order issues after the hearing. If it does not, the revocation begins, and no judge at 520 West Colfax will reverse it: section 42-2-126(4) says the disposition of the criminal charges does not affect the revocation.
Seven days is not a lot of time in which to also be finding a lawyer, and the request is not something the court does for you. It is the first and most time-critical piece of work on a Colorado case.
| What happened | First time | With a prior | Authority |
|---|---|---|---|
| Excess BAC 0.08 | 9 months | 1 year | C.R.S. § 42-2-126(3)(a)(I) |
| Refused the test | 1 year | 2 years | C.R.S. § 42-2-126(3)(c)(I) |
What a Denver DUI is worth, and who decides
The sentencing ranges are statewide and identical in every Colorado county; the full ladder, with the section numbers, is on the Colorado DUI page. What varies between counties is charging practice, what the prosecuting office will discuss, and what specialty programs the local court operates.
In Denver both of those are handled by the same two institutions. The Denver District Attorney’s Office, at 370 17th Street, prosecutes state criminal charges within the City and County of Denver and states that it handles more than 45,000 cases a year. Denver County Court runs its own specialty courts and programs, including a Sobriety Treatment Court, a Wellness Court, an Outreach Court and a competency diversion program.
Eligibility for any of those is assessed case by case rather than granted on a first offense, and the court publishes the list rather than the criteria. Assume nothing about eligibility from a web page, including this one.
DUI defense across the Denver metro
Denver being a consolidated city and county makes one half of this simple and the other half worse. Inside the city limits there is exactly one answer and it is Denver County Court. Outside them, the county decides the courthouse, and the county is not always obvious.
| City or area | County | Where the case goes |
|---|---|---|
| Aurora | Arapahoe, Adams and Douglas | Depends on the block — the city reaches into three counties |
| Littleton | Arapahoe, with parts in Douglas and Jefferson | Mostly Arapahoe County; the city limits are irregular |
| Anywhere inside Denver city limits | City and County of Denver | Denver County Court, 520 West Colfax Avenue |
Denver is a consolidated city and county, so inside the city limits there is only ever one answer. Outside them the county changes with the block, and two of the largest neighboring municipalities sit across county lines rather than inside one.
One point of law makes the table matter more in Colorado than it would elsewhere. A Colorado DUI is a state misdemeanor, and under C.R.S. section 13-10-104 a municipal court exists to hear violations of its own town’s ordinances. It cannot hear a state misdemeanor. Section 13-6-106(1)(a) gives that jurisdiction to the county courts. So an Aurora arrest does not go to Aurora Municipal Court — it goes to the county court for Arapahoe, Adams or Douglas County depending on which part of Aurora you were in.
Common questions about Denver DUI cases
Which court will my Denver DUI case be in?
Denver County Court, Criminal and Municipal Divisions, at the Lindsey-Flanigan Courthouse, 520 West Colfax Avenue. That is where misdemeanor DUI, DUI per se and DWAI are heard. A felony case — a fourth offense under the three-prior rule — moves to the Denver District Court for the Second Judicial District, which sits in the same building. Denver County Court still conducts the felony advisement and sets bond.
How long do I have to save my license after a Denver arrest?
Seven days from the notice. C.R.S. section 42-2-126(6)(a) makes the revocation effective on the seventh day and stays it only if the Division of Motor Vehicles receives a written hearing request inside that same seven-day window. The temporary permit the officer gave you expires on the same day. The request goes to the DMV, not to the court.
What is the difference between DUI and DWAI in Denver?
It is a difference of state law rather than of Denver practice. DWAI is driving while ability impaired under C.R.S. section 42-4-1301(1)(b), which has no BAC figure attached to it, and it carries a lower sentence: two to 180 days against five days to a year. It is still a misdemeanor conviction, still a prior for the felony count, and above 0.20 it carries the same ten-day minimum as a DUI.
I was arrested in Aurora. Does that go to Denver County Court?
No. Aurora is not inside the City and County of Denver, and a Colorado DUI is a state misdemeanor that a municipal court cannot hear. An Aurora arrest goes to the county court for Arapahoe, Adams or Douglas County, because Aurora reaches into all three. Which one depends on where in Aurora the stop happened.
What happens if I was held in custody?
The first appearance happens at the Van Cise-Simonet Detention Center at 490 West Colfax Avenue rather than at the courthouse. In-custody courtrooms 2100 and 2300 sit on the second floor and run from 8:00am to 6:00pm, and the Bonding Office on the first floor is open from 7:00am to 7:00pm on weekdays and 7:00am to 5:00pm at weekends and on city holidays.
Can I keep driving while the case is going on?
Possibly, with a device. C.R.S. section 42-2-132.5(4)(a)(II) lets a driver aged 21 or over facing a first nine-month excess-BAC revocation apply for early reinstatement with an interlock-restricted license at any time, and a driver revoked for refusal may apply after two months. Proof of financial responsibility has to be filed and held for the longer of three years or the restriction period.
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- Your answers go to attorneys licensed in the state where you were arrested.
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- You decide who, if anyone, you speak with. You are not committed to any of them.
Submitting this request does not create an attorney–client relationship.
More for Colorado
- Colorado DUI law — the full penalty matrix, the statutes, and the rules on priors and interlock
- Refusing a breathalyzer — what implied consent costs here against what it buys
- How long it stays on your record — three records, three clocks
- SR-22 filing requirements in Colorado — in preparation
- Ignition interlock providers and costs in Colorado — in preparation
Sources
- Denver County Court, contact and divisions — read September 20, 2026
- Denver County Court, criminal division — read September 20, 2026
- Denver County Court, about the court — read September 20, 2026
- Colorado Judicial Branch, jury information and courthouse screening — read September 20, 2026
- Denver District Attorney’s Office — read September 20, 2026
- City of Aurora, county and district courts — read September 20, 2026
- City of Littleton, city limits and places — read September 20, 2026
- C.R.S. § 42-4-1301(2)(a) and the rest of the Colorado statutes cited on this page — read in force 2026
Court addresses, hours and phone numbers were read from each court’s or office’s own published page on September 20, 2026. Those change without notice; confirm before you rely on them. No judge is named anywhere on this page, because a roster is exactly the kind of detail that goes stale silently.