9 Game-Changing Colorado Divorce Tips
Initiating a divorce can be challenging enough on its own; between the emotional toll of ending a marriage and the stress of figuring out what to do next, you don’t want to dive in without a solid game plan. To help you out, here’s a list of nine Colorado divorce tips to ease the transition.
Tip One: Negotiate an Appropriate Spousal Maintenance Payment
“Alimony” payments can be a financial lifeline or burden following a devastating divorce. A Colorado divorce attorney can assess your economic situation and advise you on achieving the most favorable terms for your circumstances.
Additionally, your divorce attorney will educate you about avoiding spousal maintenance pitfalls.
Know What You're Getting Into
In Colorado, spousal maintenance, colloquially known as “alimony,” involves one spouse making monetary payments to the other after a split. These payments are separate from child support and are supposed to help the lower-earning spouse maintain their lifestyle as they become self-sufficient.
Spousal maintenance is court-ordered financial support and can be modified. Contractual alimony is a civil agreement between spouses that a family court cannot change.
A divorcing couple can reach a support agreement during mediation and ask the court to approve it. Likewise, a spouse can request the court to order maintenance.
Spousal maintenance is not guaranteed. Courts use various factors to decide whether someone receives maintenance and, if so, how much and for how long.
If the court determines there’s a need for support and the other party can pay, it then accounts for other factors, such as:
How long the couple was married
How much money each spouse can earn
The amount of financial support given during the marriage, and
The lifestyle enjoyed during the marriage
Family courts use these spousal maintenance advisory guidelines to assist in setting fair payment terms.
Lifelong Payments
In some cases, a court may award lifelong alimony. Generally, indefinite f maintenance is ordered if:
your marriage lasted at least 20 years, and/or
your ex is unable to find employment due to advanced age, or poor health
Note: Courts can deviate from statutory guidelines regarding the amount or duration in extenuating circumstances.
You might also agree to pay indefinite alimony under terms you and your ex established outside of court. Let’s go into this next.
Contractual spousal payments negotiated outside of court can be made non-modifiable if both parties agree. Otherwise, you may be able to modify the agreement later. However, contract law no longer applies once a contractual alimony agreement becomes part of a court-adopted separation agreement. It then becomes a property settlement incorporated into a decree. From there, specific rules of civil procedure and modification statutes govern modifications.
Pros and Cons of Contractual Alimony
Out-of-court contractual alimony can deviate from the statutory guidelines. If you’re a prospective payor, this could be a positive if you negotiate a lower alimony payment. However, if your agreement is non-modifiable, you’ll be liable for the payment even if you lose your job. That can be a con if you’re concerned about future employment.
Before you agree to lock yourself into unchangeable payments, be sure to discuss the pros and cons with your attorney to save yourself from financial ruin.
Get Maintenance Right the First Time
Hiring a divorce attorney comes with upfront costs. But in most cases, you’ll spend more money if you return to court to fight an unfair maintenance agreement.
A family law attorney will work to get you the appropriate amount and duration based on the case’s facts at the time of the decree.
Post-decree modifications of spousal maintenance are subject to different analyses and factors than pre-decree determinations.
Tip 2: Accept a Fair Asset and Debt Settlement
It can be tempting to accept whatever property settlement is placed in front of you when you’re ready to move on from your divorce. But you’ll likely regret later acquiescing to an agreement that leaves you with more marital debt and a smaller percentage of the assets.
A divorce attorney will provide valuable objectivity and guidance so you can make informed decisions during an emotionally challenging time.
Sometimes, a spouse may not know all the details about the marriage’s finances, such as acquired debt. Other times, a spouse may suspect the other is hiding assets. A divorce attorney is an invaluable resource in both scenarios. They can help you untangle unfamiliar debts and uncover hidden assets.
If the court learns a spouse is intentionally trying to hide marital assets, it can award the other spouse a larger portion of the property.
Spouses attempting to hide assets can also be held in contempt of court, leading to jail time, hefty fines, or both.
Note: Colorado law provides a limited safety net if you discover later your ex-spouse omitted assets or debts from the financial disclosure. If you uncover hidden assets within five years of the divorce, the court can reallocate the marital assets based on the previously undisclosed information.
Read our legal guide to learn more about dividing marital property.
Tip 3: Don't Just 'Go Along' With the Mediator
Colorado family law cases require mediation before going to court - including divorce. Mediation can be a smoother, more cost-effective process than litigating every detail in court.
Here’s how it works: A professional mediator meets with both spouses (and their attorneys) in separate rooms. The goal is to get the parties to agree on key issues, such as property division, alimony, child custody, and parenting time.
Mediation sessions generally last 2 hours, however, parties can request a half or full day.
Know the Mediator's Role
Mediators are unbiased, professional parties who guide discussions and facilitate a divorce settlement. They don’t give legal advice. If one spouse is naturally more persuasive than the other, they may dominate negotiations and sway the mediator. As a result, the other spouse might feel pressured to accept terms they don’t like.
Having an attorney represent you during mediation will help you avoid this scenario. Your attorney represents your interests. A good lawyer will prepare several options and scenarios for you in advance. Once they understand what is important to you, you won’t have to speak up - your lawyer has that covered. Even if you aren’t afraid to push back, you’ll benefit from having experienced counsel who can sharpen the argument.
Courts rarely alter divorce settlements once they’re drawn up and signed. You need to be sure you agree with the specifics of your settlement rather than rely on making changes later.
Tip 4: Don't Trust Your Spouse to Be Fair About Asset Division
When you've spent years married to someone, you might believe you truly know them. Unfortunately, many Coloradans realize during a divorce that they didn't know their spouse as well as they thought.
People can change over time. The stressors of a divorce can also make otherwise good people act selfishly.
Don't Let Your Guard Down
The unfortunate truth is divorce turns someone you thought you knew into someone you don’t recognize.
Here are some dishonest pre-divorce tactics we’ve seen over the years:
Hiding Assets: A spouse might hide assets in anticipation of a divorce. They may funnel money into hidden accounts or not disclose new income or property. Fortunately, there are signs to look for if you suspect your spouse is hiding assets. There are also methods - such as discovery and/or financial releases - to uncover whatever the other party tries to hide.
Improper Use of Marital Assets: It’s bad enough when you’ve caught your spouse cheating. It’s even worse when you don’t know how much marital money they spent on the affair. This is an example of wasting marital assets.
Devaluing Assets: A spouse may intentionally neglect the upkeep of marital assets, causing them to lose value. For example, your soon-to-be ex may allow the family business or home to depreciate in value through neglect or intentional actions.
Favoring Their Own Interests: One spouse funnels money into personal ventures at the expense of marital obligations. For example: instead of repairing a leaky roof, your spouse spends family savings on equipment to start their own YouTube channel. Technically, this falls under the umbrella of wasting marital assets.
Cutting Out Waste
If you suspect misuse of marital assets, hire an aggressive divorce lawyer skilled in financial scrutiny. Robinson & Henry has several such attorneys on the team. They can uncover secret spending through court-ordered document reviews, interrogatories, and depositions.
Exposed spending must relate to the marriage’s decline or non-marital purposes before divorce. Once exposed, the wasteful spouse must justify the secret expenses. If unjustified, courts can compensate the other spouse by adjusting asset division.
Take this example: A spouse found to have misspent $120,000 may cause marital assets to drop from $400,000 to $280,000. The court could compensate the other spouse by awarding them $120,000. Thus, they’d receive $140,000, half of the remaining assets, plus the $120,000, totaling $260,000.
Tip 5: Don't Give Up in the Battle for Custody
Divorce can be ugly, but emotions tend to become more intense when it involves children. A common mistake made by some parents is withdrawing from the custody fight to protect the kids. Unfortunately, this can backfire in unexpected ways, such as appearing disinterested to the court. Feelings of guilt, failure, worry, or hopelessness may overwhelm you, but the court will base child custody decisions on what is in the best interest of the child(ren).
Keep Fighting
When allocating parental responsibilities and parenting time, the court reviews factors demonstrating your commitment to your children. To improve your chances of receiving a favorable custody ruling, you may:
Attend custody hearings
Remain involved in your children’s lives
Regulate your emotions
Gather evidence to support your case
Hire an experienced child custody lawyer
Tip 6: Don't Accept an Unfavorable Child Support Ruling
What is an unfavorable child support ruling? It depends on which side of the coin you land. Custodial parents want adequate child support, and non-custodial parents would like to avoid paying more than necessary. While no one enjoys a lengthy divorce process, rushing through it can lead to either side accepting less-than-optimal child support amounts.
In Colorado, child support payments are based on the Income Shares Model, factoring in:
The gross monthly income of both parents
How many overnights a child has with each parent
While the courts try to make these decisions equitably, it isn’t always fair. When you prioritize a quick divorce over your children’s needs, you increase the risk of an unfavorable outcome for you and your kids.
When You're Paying Too Much
Suppose you didn’t look closely at your financial situation before negotiating a monthly payment. Now, you’re paying more child support than you can afford. You’re bitter, possibly feel cheated, and are now looking for an out. You might consider quitting your moderately high-paying job for a much lower-paying position. Then, you can ask the court to recalculate your finances and order a lower monthly payment. This tactic won’t work. The court will still assess your earning power and assign a payment based on that.
If you fall too far behind on payments, you are vulnerable to:
Wage garnishment
Confiscation of your tax return check
Seizure of your driver’s license
Having liens placed on your bank account and/or property
Negative credit reporting, and
Contempt of court charges, which can entail fines and even jail time.
Note: Unpaid child support accrues interest over time. The longer you avoid paying, the more you’ll owe.
When You're Receiving Too Little
It’s one thing when your co-parent isn’t sending payments on time or at all. Thankfully, there are enforcement mechanisms to address this. But what happens if the court misunderstood your limited finances and ordered too little child support?
Child support helps cover the cost of food, housing, clothing, daycare, school supplies, and preventative dental and medical care — the basic expenses needed to raise a child. Payments increase if the child has special needs, requires emergency medical care, or needs mental health counseling.
Modifications Are Not Easy
Receiving an unfavorable ruling may result in going back to court to modify the judge’s original orders. However, that can also be an expensive and tedious process - one with little chance of success. A court will not consider modifying child support orders without evidence of a “substantial and continuing” change of circumstances that affect the child support order by at least 10 percent.
Tip 7: Don't Assume the Court Will Help You
The court will not hold your hand through the divorce process. If you plan to represent yourself, the court expects you to be prepared, know the law, and understand the court’s rules. The court will not be amused or sympathetic watching you stammer and struggle through proceedings.
Most people should get a divorce attorney to represent them. If you choose to represent yourself, the court will hold you to the same high standards as an attorney. You’ll be expected to:
File motions and documents correctly, and on time,
Present and admit evidence properly,
Attend hearings,
Call and cross-examine witnesses,
Bring in expert witnesses as needed, and
Follow all other protocols of decorum and procedure.
Don’t trip your way into an unfavorable outcome by attempting a Do-It-Yourself Divorce. Either hire an attorney or negotiate a settlement out of court with your spouse.
Tip 8: Don't Choose the Wrong Attorney
No one thinks about hiring a divorce attorney until they actually need one. Once they do, they tend to ask friends, family, and colleagues for recommendations. A lawyer might have done a fantastic job for your friend, but they might not be the best fit for your divorce. No family is the same, so what worked for your neighbor may not be applicable to your situation. Hiring the wrong attorney can result in an unfavorable outcome.
Choosing the Right Divorce Attorney
You’ll know you’ve found the right family law attorney to handle your divorce if he or she meets the following criteria:
They’re experienced with divorce and have tried many cases
They specialize in divorce and family law cases
They work for a big enough firm to have administrative staff to increase efficiency and support
They have handled divorces and family law matters in your county, and
They are accessible and keep you up to date on your case.
These are just the basics a qualified divorce attorney should possess. Even so, it’s important to interview a few attorneys and find one you connect with best. Keep in mind, you’ll be working closely with your divorce lawyer. He or she will learn intimate details of your life, even things you might not share with others. It’s important to feel a sense of trust when speaking with your attorney.
Tip 9: Don't Assume it's Easy to Change Your Colorado Divorce Decree
Nothing about the divorce process is easy. And neither is changing your final orders.
A divorce decree is a legally binding court order. . Changing it is difficult and requires evidence showing substantial and continuing change. For example: minor changes, like a small raise, or a recent job loss, are typically insufficient reasons to modify alimony payments. Furthermore, courts prefer parties resolve disputes between themselves before seeking modifications. That’s fine - assuming you want to spend more time trying to negotiate with your former spouse.
Making and Cleaning Up Messes
Trying to cut costs and corners during a divorce makes more of a mess than it’s worth. You can help clean it up by modifying court orders, but you also might spend much more money. Divorce is the one thing you want to get right the first time.
Having good counsel in your corner goes a long way. They can put you in a better position to enjoy your children, property, and life once the divorce is final.
Don't Go Through Divorce Alone
If you are headed for divorce, make sure the settlement and court orders reflect your rights and interests. Divorce can be managed smoothly with the right lawyer in your corner. Call (303) 688-0944 to begin your case assessment.
