ab • 10/2006
Wolf Law Building, second floor
reference desk 303.492.3522
circulation desk 303.492.2707
www.colorado.edu/law/lawlib/
William A. Wise Law Library tip sheet:
How to find Colorado statutes
Colorado has two versions of its statutes. The official state version published by LexisNexis is called
Colorado Revised Statutes (KF1830.C66 in Colorado Section). This red set is reissued in its
entirety every year. Current and superseded (old) versions can be found at the reserve desk as well
as in the Colorado section of the Law Library on the second floor.
The second, unofficial version is West's Colorado Revised Statutes Annotated (KFC1830
1973.A47 in Colorado Section). This blue set is updated annually by pocket parts. Current
versions and superseded pocket parts can be found in the Colorado section of the Law Library.
The text and the numbering of the statutes in the two sets is exactly the same, although each
publisher independently chooses which annotations to include in their publication. Depending on
your specific area of interest, one publisher may include more annotations of interest than the
other, so it is best to look at both sets.
The statutes are online from the state legislature, although statutes can be difficult to use online.
To find a statute by topic in either print set, begin in the index volume(s). These are shelved at
the end of the set. There are several ways to use the indexes:
o Look up your subject in the A to Z section.
o Use the Words and Phrases section towards the back of the index to look up common
English words and find the corresponding code section(s) which deals with that issue.
o The index also includes short title and popular names sections where you could look up a
statute’s popular name like “Blue Sky Law.”
o The comparative tables section translates the numbering system for older statutes to the
current numbering system adopted in 1973.
Court rules volume(s) contain the Colorado Rules of Civil Procedure and various other