Colorado: legal help you can afford
There is no public defender for a divorce in Colorado, or anywhere else — the right to a free lawyer is a criminal-case right, and a divorce is a civil case. What exists instead is on this page, with the link to each one. Start with the fee waiver and the question of whether your spouse can be made to pay your legal fees, because those two are the ones people never think to ask about.
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The five things to try, in this order
Ordered by how much they are worth relative to how hard they are, not alphabetically.
- Ask about the filing fee waiver. In Colorado it is called Motion to File Without Payment and Supporting Financial Affidavit. Form JDF 205. Statewide Judicial Branch form to request waiver of filing fee/costs based on financial hardship.
- Ask whether your spouse can be ordered to pay your lawyer. Allows the court, after considering the financial resources of both parties, to order one party to pay a reasonable amount of the other party’s attorney’s fees and costs in a dissolution proceeding. (Colo. Rev. Stat. § 14-10-119)
- Check the statewide legal-aid portal. LawHelp Colorado (lawhelp.colorado.gov) lists the program that covers your county and what it takes.
- Use the court self-help service. Colorado Judicial Branch Self-Help / Forms. Statewide self-help resources; individual district courts (e.g. Denver) also run local self-help centers.
- Try the bar referral service. Metro Volunteer Lawyers (Denver Bar Association). Denver-metro modest-means/pro bono referral program; statewide coverage not confirmed, see also lawhelp.colorado.gov/lawyers-and-legal-assistance for other regions.
Legal aid in Colorado
Legal aid organizations are funded to serve people under an income threshold, and family cases are one of the areas they most often take. Being turned down by one is not the end of it — the threshold, the caseload and the priorities differ by program and by month.
| Organization | Who it covers | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Colorado Legal Services (via lawhelp.colorado.gov directory) | statewide, organized by locality |
University of Denver Sturm College of Law – Student Law Office (clinical programs). Clinics are free, supervised by faculty, and the students have far more time for your case than a stretched legal aid lawyer does. They take few cases and they follow the academic year, so the answer depends heavily on when you ask.
Limited scope representation. You hire a lawyer for one piece — one hearing, one document, a review of an agreement before you sign it — and do the rest yourself. It costs a fraction of full representation and it puts a lawyer in the two or three moments that actually change the outcome. How it works, and where it is permitted.
Compiled 31 August 2026 from each organization’s own site, the state courts and the state bar. Legal aid funding and eligibility change, sometimes mid-year. Always check the link before relying on anything here. Corrections welcome.
Keep reading
- The national picture — fee waivers, unbundling, fee awards
- The Colorado divorce kit — forms, fees and deadlines
- Doing it without a lawyer
- Questions to ask a lawyer
- What divorce costs
- What two households cost