Divorce & Family Law

Many factors will be considered in determining spousal maintenance, including, but not limited to, the duration of the marriage, each party’s gross income, the marital property allocated to each party, each party’s financial resources, the recipient spouse’s reasonable financial need as established during the marriage, the payor spouse’s ability to pay while meeting his or her needs, the age and health of the parties, significant economic or noneconomic contribution to the marriage, and the lifestyle established during the marriage.

If the parties’ marriage is at least three years and the parties’ combined annual adjusted gross income does not exceed $240,000, the court must consider the advisory guideline amount and term of maintenance found in C.R.S. § 14-10-114.

Separate property is typically any property acquired prior to the marriage and any gifts or inheritance received by one party during the marriage. Marital property is acquired during the marriage and includes increase in value of separate property during the marriage.

No, Colorado is a no-fault state which means that regardless of the reason behind the dissolution of marriage, the court will not consider those reasons in allocating marital property between the spouses or determining spousal maintenance, absent extreme dissipation or marital waste.

Depending on the circumstances surrounding your divorce, you may be interested in limited-scope representation. When divorce proceedings are amicable, and therefore uncontested or mostly uncontested, you can use your attorney for only certain tasks which should reduce the costs incurred as compared with retaining an attorney to represent you in court.

One party has to have resided in Colorado for at least 91 days before filing a Petition with the Court. If there are children associated with your case they need to have resided in Colorado for at least 182 days before the filing of a Petition with the Court.

If you are in a same-sex marriage and going through a divorce, the timeline and process is the same as with opposite-sex marriages.

At a minimum, your divorce will take 91 days from the date the initial divorce documents are served. It is likely that it will take longer due to delays with the court. However, while you are waiting for your mediation and/or your contested hearing, there are several tasks to be completed. Each party’s mandatory financial disclosures are due within 42 days of service of the initial divorce documents. Further, you will work with your attorney inventory your assets and liabilities, consider retaining experts, and assemble financial documents to illustrate your current financial circumstances.