Terms of Use

1. Who these terms are with

Colorado Water Rights (cowaterrights.com) is an independent reference site about Colorado water law, operated from Colorado, United States ("we", "us", "our"). "You" means anyone using the site. These Terms of Use govern that use, alongside our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into them and is the authority on how we handle data.

You accept these terms by using the site. If you submit the email form, that submission is your affirmative agreement to these terms and the Privacy Policy, and it is what we rely on for the arbitration agreement in section 15.

We may update these terms. The effective date at the top changes when we do, and continuing to use the site after that means you accept the revised version. We will not apply changes retroactively to something that already happened, and no change to section 15 (dispute resolution) applies to a dispute that arose before the change.

2. What this site is — and is not

This site is reference information. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney–client relationship. We are not attorneys, engineers, appraisers, brokers or agents, and nothing here is legal, engineering, financial, appraisal or real estate advice.

Colorado water law is unusually fact-dependent. Two rights on the same ditch, decreed for the same amount, can behave completely differently because of their priority dates, later decrees, ditch company bylaws, or conditions imposed in a change case decades ago. General information cannot tell you what your right entitles you to. The full disclaimer sets this out at length and forms part of these terms.

3. No warranty

The site is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, or non-infringement.

We check every legal claim against the primary source and date it — see the methodology — and we still do not warrant that the site is accurate, complete or current. Statutes are amended, decrees are entered, rights change hands, and administrative practice shifts. The last-verified date on a page tells you when it was checked, not that it is correct today. Always confirm against the linked primary source before acting.

4. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, we are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, water rights, property, business or data, arising out of or relating to your use of — or inability to use — this site, whether the claim is framed in contract, tort, negligence, strict liability or otherwise, and even if we have been advised that such damages are possible.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, our total aggregate liability arising out of or relating to the site will not exceed one hundred United States dollars (US$100). Some jurisdictions do not allow certain exclusions or limitations, so parts of this section may not apply to you; in that case our liability is limited to the greatest extent permitted.

5. Indemnification

To the fullest extent permitted by law, you agree to defend, indemnify and hold us harmless from any third-party claim, damage, liability, cost or reasonable attorney's fee arising out of or relating to:

• presenting this site's content as legal advice, or as your own professional opinion, to someone who then relies on you;
• your breach of these terms, including the prohibitions in section 9; or
• your use of the site, or of anything you learned from it, in violation of any law or of anyone else's rights.

This obligation is deliberately narrow: the site is free reference information, and the only claims it asks you to stand behind are the ones your own conduct creates. It does not apply to any claim to the extent it is finally determined to have resulted from our own negligence, gross negligence or willful misconduct, and nothing in it requires you to indemnify us for anything that cannot be indemnified under the law of the state where you live. We may take over the defense of any matter covered by this section at our own expense, and you agree to cooperate if we do.

6. Your responsibilities

You are responsible for verifying anything that matters against the primary source, for meeting your own deadlines, and for obtaining professional advice before acting. Do not treat a page here as a substitute for reading your decree, your well permit, or your ditch company's bylaws.

7. Intellectual property — ours, and what is not ours

What we own. The original writing, page structure, editorial selection and arrangement, design system, diagrams and site code are ours, © 2026 Colorado Water Rights, and are protected by copyright.

What we do not own, and do not claim. The Colorado Constitution, the Colorado Revised Statutes, court opinions, water court decrees and the records published by the Colorado Division of Water Resources are government works in the public domain. We quote them, cite them and link to them; we assert no copyright over any of that material, and nothing in these terms should be read as restricting your use of it. Where you want the law itself, go to the source we link to — that is what the links are for.

8. What you may do with this site

You may read it, print it, save it, and share links to it. You may quote from it with attribution and a link to the page quoted. You may use it in your own research, in a transaction, or in advising a client.

What we ask you not to do is republish the site's original prose wholesale as a substitute for it — reproducing pages or large parts of them on another site, with or without attribution. Quoting, excerpting, summarizing, indexing and linking are all fine.

9. Things you must not do

• Present this site's content as legal advice, or as your own professional opinion, to someone relying on you.
• Misrepresent the site, or suggest that we endorse you, your firm or your services.
• Suggest affiliation with any government body. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or publishing on behalf of the Colorado Division of Water Resources, the Colorado Judicial Branch, the Office of Legislative Legal Services or any other agency.
• Interfere with the site's operation, attempt to gain unauthorized access to any system, or conduct security testing against it without our written permission.
• Use anything you learn here — particularly from the public records we explain how to search, which contain individuals' names and addresses — to harass, stalk or intimidate anyone. Those records are public because water administration requires it, not so that people can be looked up.
• Use the site in violation of any applicable law.

10. Email sign-up

If you give us an email address, you are asking us to send you the owner's guide and occasional notices when Colorado water rules change. You can unsubscribe from any message, and you can ask us to delete your address at any time. What we collect and how we handle it is governed by our Privacy Policy. There is no charge, and no obligation either way — nothing on this site is behind the form.

11. Links to other sites

We link extensively to state agencies, courts and official publications so you can verify what we say. We do not control those sites, are not responsible for their content, accuracy or availability, and a link is not an endorsement. Your use of them is governed by their own terms.

12. Copyright complaints

If you believe material on this site infringes your copyright, email [email protected] identifying the work, the page complained of, your contact details, and a statement of your good-faith belief that the use is unauthorized. We respond to properly made complaints promptly and will remove genuinely infringing material.

13. Corrections

If something here is wrong, tell us — bluntly is fine. Corrections are made on the page and the last-verified date is updated when they are. That is the whole premise of the site, and it only works if people report errors.

14. Changes to the site

We may change, add, remove or discontinue any part of the site at any time, including taking it down entirely. It is published free and we make no commitment to keep any page available. If you rely on something here, keep your own copy of the primary source.

15. Dispute resolution: binding individual arbitration and class-action waiver

Read this section. It changes how disputes between us get resolved: most go to binding arbitration on an individual basis instead of court, there is no class action, and you have 30 days to opt out with no penalty.

(a) Talk to us first. Before either of us starts an arbitration or a lawsuit, the one with the complaint sends the other a written notice describing the dispute and what they want. To us: [email protected], or by post to Colorado Water Rights, PO Box 203, Larkspur, CO 80118. To you: the email address you gave us. For 60 days after that notice we both try, in good faith, to settle it informally. To the extent the law allows, that period pauses any limitation period. If we do not respond within 30 days, this step is satisfied and you may proceed.

(b) Agreement to arbitrate. If informal resolution fails, you and we each agree that any dispute, claim or controversy arising out of or relating to these terms, the site, or any communication you receive as a result of using it, including whether a dispute is subject to this agreement at all, will be resolved by binding arbitration on an individual basis rather than in court, except as subsections (c), (d) and (e) provide. This is mutual: it binds us exactly as it binds you. Arbitration will be administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Arbitration Rules (including its Mass Arbitration Supplementary Rules where they apply) in effect when the arbitration is filed. If the AAA is unavailable or declines, we will agree on another consumer arbitration administrator; if we cannot agree, either of us may ask a court to appoint an arbitrator under 9 U.S.C. § 5. One arbitrator, in English, and at your choice by videoconference, on written submissions, or in person in the county where you live. Fees are governed by the administrator's consumer rules and fee schedule. The arbitrator may award any individual relief a court could, and the award may be entered in any court with jurisdiction. The Federal Arbitration Act governs this section.

(c) Small claims. Either of us may instead bring an individual claim in small claims court (for you, the small claims court where you live), as long as it stays there and stays individual.

(d) Injunctions. Either of us may go to court for injunctive or other equitable relief to stop actual or threatened infringement or misuse of intellectual property, without arbitrating first.

(e) Class-action waiver. You and we each give up the right to take part in a class action, class arbitration, consolidated action or representative proceeding. An arbitrator may award relief only to the individual seeking it, and only as far as needed to resolve that person's own claim. Despite subsection (b), whether this waiver is enforceable is for a court to decide, not an arbitrator. If a court finds it unenforceable for a particular claim, then this whole arbitration agreement does not apply to that claim, which goes to court under section 16 instead; this sentence is not severable from the rest of this subsection.

(f) Jury trial. There is no jury in arbitration. If this arbitration agreement does not apply to a claim (because you opted out, because the class-action waiver was found unenforceable, or for any other reason), then no jury-trial waiver applies to it either, and you keep whatever right to a jury the law gives you.

(g) Coordinated filings. If 25 or more similar arbitration demands are filed against us by claimants using the same or coordinated counsel, they will be administered under the AAA's Mass Arbitration Supplementary Rules (or the administrator's equivalent), including any batching those rules provide. That does not limit any individual claimant's right to arbitrate their own claim or the relief available to them.

(h) Your 30-day opt-out. You may reject this arbitration agreement (subsections (b) through (g)) entirely, with no penalty and no effect on anything else in these terms. Email [email protected] with the subject line "Arbitration Opt-Out", your name, and the email address you used on the site, within 30 days of first submitting the email form. If you never submitted the form, or we hold no record of your submission, the 30-day window has not started and you may opt out at any time before a dispute arises. We will confirm by reply. If you opt out, disputes go to court under section 16.

(i) Severability and survival. Except as subsection (e) says, if part of this section is unenforceable the rest still stands. This section survives any termination of these terms and any end of your use of the site.

16. Governing law and venue

These terms and any dispute arising out of them or the site are governed by the laws of the State of Colorado and applicable United States federal law, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules, except that the Federal Arbitration Act governs section 15, and except that nothing here deprives you of the protection of mandatory consumer-protection law of your own state that cannot be waived by agreement.

For any claim not subject to arbitration and not brought in small claims court, you and we consent to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the state and federal courts located in Colorado, unless the law of your state of residence guarantees you a different forum for consumer claims.

17. Severability, survival and entire agreement

Except as section 15(e) says, if any provision of these terms is held unenforceable, that provision is limited or removed to the minimum extent necessary and the rest remains in effect. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of it.

Survival. Provisions that by their nature should outlast your use of the site do survive it: sections 2 through 9, 15, 16 and this section.

These terms, together with the Privacy Policy and the disclaimer, are the entire agreement between us about your use of this site.

These terms are ours to draft and ours to stand behind. They were not written by an attorney, and we would rather say so than imply otherwise.

18. Contact

Email [email protected]. See also about this site and how it is researched.