Divorce in Colorado: what to expect
What a divorce in Colorado actually involves: how property is divided, how long you must have lived there, what you have to prove, how long it takes, and what the court is deciding about the children. Colorado is an equitable distribution state. The court divides marital property fairly, which is not the same as equally, and the difference is where the argument happens.
See a different stateColorado
Every line below is taken from the statute or the court, and the citation is next to it so you can check us. It is still not advice about your case. The same statute produces very different outcomes on different facts, and the parts that decide your outcome — the length of the marriage, who earned what, whose name is on what — are not on this page because we do not know them. Use this to know what questions to ask, not to predict an answer.
Colorado at a glance
Every row is cited. Where a row says we could not confirm it, that is exactly what it means — we went looking and would not guess.
| Question | The answer in this state | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Property division | equitable distribution | C.R.S. § 14-10-113 |
| How it works in practice | Colorado courts divide marital property (property acquired during the marriage, with some exceptions) in proportions the court deems just, without regard to marital misconduct, considering each spouse’s contribution, value of separate property, economic circumstances, and any increase/decrease in value of separate property during the marriage. | C.R.S. § 14-10-113 not re-checked |
| Residency requirement | At least one party must have been domiciled in Colorado for 91 days immediately before the petition is filed. | C.R.S. § 14-10-106(1)(a)(I) |
| Waiting period | A decree cannot be entered until 91 days after the petition is filed and the other spouse is served (or the parties file jointly / the other spouse signs a waiver); the 91 days run from joint filing, service, or the signed waiver. | Colorado Judicial Branch, JDF 1010 Guide to Divorce or Legal Separation (rev. 2025) (statutory section in C.R.S. 14-10-106 not read; Title 14 PDF truncated) |
| The no-fault ground | The marriage is irretrievably broken. This is the sole ground for dissolution in Colorado. | C.R.S. § 14-10-106 |
| Filing fee | $260 to file a petition for dissolution of marriage or legal separation; $146 for a response (statewide district court fee, effective January 1, 2025) | C.R.S. § 13-32-101; Colorado Judicial Branch List of Fees (January 2025) |
| Alimony | Colorado calls it ‘maintenance.’ Under C.R.S. § 14-10-114 the court first decides whether maintenance is appropriate, then may consult advisory guidelines that apply when the marriage lasted at least 3 years and combined annual gross income is $240,000 or less: the guideline amount is 40% of the parties’ combined monthly adjusted gross income minus the lower-earning party’s income, adjusted to 80% of that figure (combined income up to $10,000/month) or 75% ($10,001–$20,000/month); guideline duration runs on a table by length of marriage (zero under 36 months, rising to 120 months for a 20-year marriage; open-ended term possible for longer marriages). The guidelines create no presumption; the court weighs factors including each party’s financial resources, the property division, income and employability, reasonable needs and lifestyle, age and health, length of the marriage, education needs, and contributions to the marriage. | C.R.S. § 14-10-114 (as summarized in Colorado Judicial Branch Appendix C, Spousal/Partner Maintenance Advisement, rev. 9/25) |
| Custody standard | Best interests of the child (Colorado calls this ‘allocation of parental responsibilities’ rather than custody), considering statutory factors. | C.R.S. § 14-10-124 not re-checked |
| Any parenting-time presumption | No presumption that equal (50/50) parenting time is in a child’s best interest, and no presumption that either parent is better suited to serve the child’s interests; courts start from the individualized best-interest analysis, not a default split. | C.R.S. § 14-10-124 |
Grounds: what you have to say happened
The no-fault ground in Colorado is: The marriage is irretrievably broken. This is the sole ground for dissolution in Colorado.. C.R.S. § 14-10-106
There is effectively no fault-based route here. Which means the affair, the drinking, or whose fault it was is generally not the question the court is deciding, however much it matters to you.
What is unusual about Colorado
The things that surprise people who assumed their state works like the one they read about.
- Colorado uses the terms ‘allocation of parental responsibilities’ and ‘parenting time’ rather than ‘custody’ and ‘visitation.’
- Colorado is a pure no-fault state — irretrievable breakdown is the only ground, with no fault-based alternative track.
How long you were married. Almost every alimony statute in the country turns on it, and most have unwritten thresholds judges apply. Whose name is on what. It matters far less than people expect in a community property state and far more than people expect for a house bought before the marriage. Whether either of you brought money in. Separate property stays separate until it is mixed with marital money, and then the argument is about how thoroughly. The questions that decide it are here.
Compiled 31 August 2026 from Colorado statutes and court sources, each linked in the table. Re-read against the statutes on 3 September 2026. 2 of the rows above are marked not re-checked because our tools could not reach this state’s official statute site that day; those rows still rest on the 31 August 2026 reading. Statutes change, and several states have changed theirs recently. Tell us if we have one wrong.
Keep reading
- The Colorado divorce kit — forms, fees and deadlines
- Legal help in Colorado you can afford
- Who gets what — the questions that decide it
- What a Colorado divorce costs
- What two households cost
- What people wish they had known