What the Clerk of Combined Court (in most Colorado judicial districts, one clerk's office handles both county and district court filings; Denver is the exception, with its own separate county court clerk) charges to file an eviction or a small claims case, what the sheriff charges to serve it, and how to ask the court to waive the fees.
This is a floor, not a total. It adds up only the components this county actually publishes — the missing pieces below will push it higher. Attorney fees, if you use one, are on top of this and are not included.
Everything the clerk charges on an eviction or small claims case in Otero County. The figures set by state statute are verified and apply here. A dash means we have not yet read this county’s own schedule — not that the fee is zero.
| Fee | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Eviction filing — possession + rent claim | — | When a landlord also claims back rent, the filing fee climbs with the amount claimed rather than staying at one number: $95.00 under $1,000, $115.00 from $1,000 to $14,999.99, and $145.00 from $15,000 to $25,000. All three figures are statewide and statutory, not county-set, but because the fee depends on how much rent is being claimed we are not printing one single amount here. |
| Eviction filing — possession only | $95 | A possession-only eviction, or one with a rent claim under $1,000, costs $95.00 to file in every Colorado county court, because the fee is set by state statute and administered by one statewide court system rather than by the county. |
| Appearance fee — eviction defendant | No fee | A tenant pays nothing to file an answer in a Colorado eviction case, at any dollar tier. The Colorado Judicial Branch's fee list states this directly as "Evictions (any amount): $0." |
| Appearance fee — small claims defendant | — | Not applicable to an eviction, since eviction cases cannot be filed in Colorado small claims court at all. For an ordinary small claims case, a defendant's answer fee is $26.00 without a counterclaim or $31.00 with one for claims under $500, and $41.00 or $46.00 for claims up to $7,500 — tiered by amount, so we are not collapsing it to a single figure here. |
| Jury demand — 12 jurors | $98 | $98.00 to demand a jury in a Colorado county civil case, which includes an eviction. Colorado does not charge a different amount depending on how many jurors are seated. |
| Jury demand — 6 jurors | — | Colorado does not price a six-person jury separately from a twelve-person one — see jury_demand_12 for the single $98.00 figure that applies either way. |
| Jury demand — small claims | — | There is no jury demand fee in Colorado small claims court because there is no jury trial there at all, and an eviction cannot be filed as a small claims case in the first place. |
| Mediation fee | — | We found no court-charged mediation fee for a Colorado eviction. The state's Eviction Legal Defense Fund pays for free mediation between landlord and tenant for a tenant at or below 200% of the federal poverty line, but that is a benefit program rather than a court fee. |
| E-filing surcharge | — | We found no surcharge charged for choosing to e-file. The Colorado Judicial Branch's fee list instead lists a $50.00 per-document scanning fee that applies only when e-filing is mandatory for the filer and they file on paper anyway — a penalty for not e-filing, not a cost of e-filing. |
The filing fee is not the whole bill. Somebody has to serve the defendant, and in Colorado the sheriff sets that price county by county — it is the most variable number on this page. We could not confirm an actual charged amount for either the initial summons or the writ of restitution on a live county page. State law caps the Sheriff's civil service fee at $35.00 and execution of the writ of restitution at $200.00 in actual expenses, with each county setting its own number by ordinance or resolution up to those caps.
Colorado courts will waive court fees, costs, and charges for people below certain income levels, under C.R.S. § 13-16-103 and Chief Justice Directive 98-01. There is one statewide form — you do not need a Otero County version of it.
| The court waives | If your available income is |
|---|---|
| Full | Household income at or below 125% of the federal poverty line, or enrollment in a qualifying public benefit (Aid to the Blind, Aid to the Needy Disabled, Old Age Pension A or B, SSI, TANF, or SNAP). As of the income limits posted January 13, 2026, that is $2,078/month for a household of one, up to $4,297/month for a household of four, with higher amounts for larger households. |
Colorado is all-or-nothing, the same shape as Georgia and Florida rather than Illinois's four graduated bands: you either meet the 125%-of-poverty test (or the public-benefits shortcut) and the fee is waived in full, or you do not and you pay the full tier amount. There is no partial or percentage waiver.
Fee waiver information verified August 1, 2026 against the Illinois General Assembly statute text and the Illinois Courts approved-forms library. We report what the statute and the form say. We cannot tell you whether you qualify — that is the court's decision.
Otero County Circuit Court
Clerk of Combined Court (in most Colorado judicial districts, one clerk's office handles both county and district court filings; Denver is the exception, with its own separate county court clerk)
No clerk website found. Contact the county courthouse directly.
Colorado Courts E-Filing
A self-represented landlord or tenant can file an eviction on paper at the county court clerk's counter in every county; e-filing through the state's own system is available and, for a tenant responding to an eviction, is the only way to submit a fee waiver request online. We did not find a rule making e-filing mandatory for a self-represented party, only for attorneys, and did not confirm that attorney requirement's current citation on a live page, so we are not printing one here. eFileIL →
We publish the court's and clerk's own contact information and link to their pages. We do not take your information, route you to anyone, or file anything on your behalf. For questions about court procedure — as opposed to what it costs — use the Illinois Courts self-help center.
Colorado's eviction filing fee does not vary by county, and the reason is structural: unlike Georgia's or Ohio's locally funded courts, every Colorado county court is a branch of one state agency, the Colorado Judicial Branch, and that agency publishes one fee list that governs all 64 counties, Denver included. What we found on that list is a fee that is uniform statewide but tiered by the dollar amount the landlord is claiming, not by geography: $95.00 if the claim is under $1,000 (which covers most possession-only filings and small back-rent claims), $115.00 for $1,000 to $14,999.99, and $145.00 for $15,000 to $25,000, all under C.R.S. § 13-32-101. A tenant answering an eviction pays nothing at all, at any dollar tier — that is a flat, confirmed $0. We checked several individual county and sheriff websites looking for a locally set number that would contradict the state list, including Denver, Jefferson, Douglas, Boulder, El Paso and Larimer; none of them publish a different figure, and most simply do not publish their own fee page at all, deferring to the state's one list, which is consistent with fees being set by the legislature rather than by the county.
This is one statewide statutory table published by the Colorado Judicial Branch itself, not a county-by-county schedule the way Georgia's is. We are showing the eviction rows and the small claims rows side by side on purpose, because the small claims rows can never actually apply to an eviction — C.R.S. § 13-6-403(2) rules eviction cases out of small claims court entirely.
Statutory backbone: C.R.S. § 13-32-101 — Docket fees. C.R.S. § 13-32-101(1)(c), as amended; forcible entry and detainer procedure at C.R.S. § 13-40-101 et seq.. We did not find a separate surcharge stacked on top of the $95.00 / $115.00 / $145.00 tiers the way Florida stacks a $4.00 and a $1.00 fee onto its base number. The Colorado Judicial Branch's own current fee list shows those three figures as the whole amount due at filing, and we found no discrepancy to reconcile. Statute text checked August 1, 2026.
Compiled and verified by David Scott. We re-check every source document monthly and re-read any county whose schedule has changed. If the clerk quotes you something different from what is on this page, tell us and we will fix it. Read the full methodology.