WHAT MISTAKES MAKE A COLORADO DIVORCE HARDER?
The Colorado divorce tips that matter most are about rules, not attitude. Many of the mistakes that make a divorce slower, more expensive or more painful come from breaking a court order you did not know applied, missing a deadline, or signing something you did not fully understand.
This guide walks through eleven common mistakes in Colorado divorces and ties each one to the statute, rule or local order behind it. It is written for people in El Paso and Teller counties, which make up the Fourth Judicial District, but most of it applies anywhere in Colorado.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Key Deadlines at a Glance
- Mistake 1: Breaking the Automatic Temporary Injunction
- Mistake 2: Missing the Response Deadline
- Mistake 3: Treating Financial Disclosures as a Formality
- Mistake 4: Hiding, Moving or Wasting Marital Assets
- Mistake 5: Assuming Maintenance Lasts Forever
- Mistake 6: Overlooking Retirement Accounts and Taxes
- Mistake 7: Signing a Vague Parenting Plan
- Mistake 8: Guessing About Mediation
- Mistake 9: Posting, Texting and Venting
- Mistake 10: Forgetting Insurance and Beneficiaries
- Mistake 11: Treating the Decree as the Finish Line
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Talking With a Colorado Springs Family Law Attorney
- Sources
KEY DEADLINES AT A GLANCE
Several of the mistakes below are really missed deadlines. Here are the main ones in a Colorado dissolution of marriage, the legal term for divorce.
| What | Deadline or rule | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Filing a Response | 21 days after service in Colorado; 35 days if served outside Colorado or by publication | Summons, form JDF 1012 |
| Automatic temporary injunction | Applies to both spouses once the petition is filed and the other spouse is served or accepts service, until the decree or a court order | C.R.S. 14-10-107 |
| Changing insurance during the case | At least 14 days' notice plus written consent or a court order | C.R.S. 14-10-107 |
| Sworn Financial Statement and mandatory disclosures | Within 42 days after service of the petition | C.R.C.P. 16.2 and the El Paso County case management order |
| Initial Status Conference (El Paso County) | Within 42 days of filing | Case management order, form FCF 400 |
| Parenting class (El Paso County, children under 18) | Level 1 parenting seminar within 42 days of filing | Case management order, form FCF 400 |
| Earliest possible decree | 91 days after the court acquires jurisdiction over the respondent | C.R.S. 14-10-106 |
| Assets left out of disclosures | Court keeps jurisdiction for 5 years after the decree | C.R.C.P. 16.2(e)(10) |
MISTAKE 1: BREAKING THE AUTOMATIC TEMPORARY INJUNCTION
Every Colorado dissolution or legal separation case comes with an automatic temporary injunction under C.R.S. 14-10-107. Once the petition has been filed and the other spouse has been served (or has accepted service), it applies to both spouses, and it lasts until the decree is entered, the case is dismissed, or the court orders otherwise. Its terms are printed on the summons, and it is easy to break without realizing it.
The injunction restrains both spouses from:
- Transferring, encumbering, concealing or disposing of marital property without the other spouse's consent or a court order, except in the usual course of business or for the necessities of life.
- Molesting or disturbing the peace of the other spouse.
- Removing the children from Colorado without the other spouse's consent or a court order.
- Canceling, modifying or letting lapse health, homeowner's or renter's, or auto insurance covering either spouse or the children, or life insurance naming either spouse or the children as a beneficiary, unless there is at least 14 days' advance notice and the other spouse's written consent or a court order.
Each spouse must also notify the other of proposed extraordinary expenditures and account to the court for any made after the injunction takes effect. In practice, that means no unusual transfers or withdrawals, no new loans against the house, and no trip out of state with the children unless your spouse agrees or the court allows it. The injunction is a court order, and breaking it can hurt your credibility on every other issue in the case.
MISTAKE 2: MISSING THE RESPONSE DEADLINE
If your spouse filed and you were served, the summons sets your deadline. Under the Judicial Branch summons form, you must file your Response within 21 days after service if you were served in Colorado, or within 35 days if you were served outside Colorado or by publication.
If you do not respond, the summons warns that the matters in the petition may be decided without further notice to you. Filing a Response carries a court fee, listed by the Colorado Judicial Branch at $146 in its January 2025 fee list.
Put the deadline on your calendar the day you are served, and start looking for legal help right away rather than in the last few days.
MISTAKE 3: TREATING FINANCIAL DISCLOSURES AS A FORMALITY
Colorado's domestic relations rule, C.R.C.P. 16.2, says the parties owe each other and the court a duty of full and honest disclosure. In El Paso County, the district court's case management order requires each party to complete a Sworn Financial Statement and exchange the mandatory disclosures within 42 days of service of the petition, then file a Certificate of Compliance.
The order warns that failing to comply may result in sanctions against the noncomplying party. Late or incomplete disclosures also stall mediation and settlement, because no one can negotiate fairly over numbers they have not seen.
Start gathering documents early: tax returns, pay stubs, bank and retirement statements, loan balances and insurance policies. If something is unclear, disclose it and explain it rather than leaving it out.
MISTAKE 4: HIDING, MOVING OR WASTING MARITAL ASSETS
Hidden assets have a way of surfacing, and Colorado's rules are built for the day they do. Under C.R.C.P. 16.2(e)(10), if a disclosure contained a material misstatement or omission, a spouse can ask the court to allocate the omitted assets or liabilities after the decree. The motion must be filed within five years of the final decree, and the court must deny one filed later.
Spending marital money on things unrelated to the marriage can also come up when the court divides property. Our guides on what to do if your spouse is hiding money and marital waste in Colorado explain how these issues are raised and proved.
It also helps to know the baseline. Under C.R.S. 14-10-113, Colorado divides marital property in the proportions the court finds just, without regard to marital misconduct, and property acquired during the marriage is presumed marital no matter whose name is on it until it is shown to fall within an exception such as a gift or inheritance.
MISTAKE 5: ASSUMING MAINTENANCE LASTS FOREVER
Colorado calls what most people know as alimony spousal maintenance, and it is rarely permanent. Under C.R.S. 14-10-114, advisory guidelines apply when the marriage lasted at least three years and the spouses' combined annual adjusted gross income is $240,000 or less.
The guideline term grows with the length of the marriage, from 11 months for a 36-month marriage to 120 months for a 240-month marriage. For marriages longer than 20 years, the court may award maintenance for a specified term or for an indefinite term. The statute also says the guidelines do not create a presumptive amount or term.
Even indefinite maintenance is not forever. Under C.R.S. 14-10-122, unless the spouses agreed otherwise in writing or the decree expressly provides otherwise, maintenance ends on the death of either party or on the remarriage or civil union of the person receiving it.
One related point is unsettled. Colorado Court of Appeals decisions have disagreed about what wording an agreement needs to keep maintenance going after the recipient remarries, and on May 18, 2026 the Colorado Supreme Court agreed to review In re Marriage of Clark on that question. Until it rules, an agreement should say plainly what happens to maintenance on remarriage.
Either side can also ask the court to modify maintenance when circumstances change so substantially and continuingly that the terms become unfair. Our guide to alimony and spousal maintenance in Colorado walks through the formula and the factors.
MISTAKE 6: OVERLOOKING RETIREMENT ACCOUNTS AND TAXES
Retirement savings can be one of the largest assets in a divorce. The portion built up during the marriage falls under the marital property presumption in C.R.S. 14-10-113, even if the account is in one spouse's name.
Dividing an employer retirement plan usually takes a separate order, often called a qualified domestic relations order or QDRO, that the plan must accept. If that order is never prepared and approved, the division written into your decree can be difficult to carry out years later. Military retired pay has its own federal rules; see our page on military divorce in Colorado Springs.
Taxes matter too. Under current federal law, maintenance paid under a divorce or separation instrument signed after December 31, 2018 is not deductible by the payer or taxable to the recipient, and child support is neither deductible nor taxable. Selling a house, cashing out an account, or trading retirement funds for home equity can carry tax consequences, so get tax advice before you agree to a division.
MISTAKE 7: SIGNING A VAGUE PARENTING PLAN
Colorado's divorce law does not sort parents into custody labels. Under C.R.S. 14-10-124, the court allocates parental responsibilities, meaning decision-making responsibility and parenting time, according to the best interests of the child, giving paramount consideration to the child's safety and physical, mental and emotional conditions and needs.
Either parent may submit a parenting plan, and if no plan is submitted or approved, the court writes its own. Colorado has no presumption of equal parenting time, and the court may not presume either parent is better able to serve the child's best interests because of that parent's sex.
A plan that says little more than "reasonable parenting time as agreed" tends to hold up only until the parents disagree. A workable plan spells out the regular schedule, exchange times and places, holidays and school breaks, how decisions about school and medical care are made, how the parents communicate, and what happens with out-of-state travel.
For more detail, see our guides to parenting time in Colorado and splitting holidays after a divorce.
MISTAKE 8: GUESSING ABOUT MEDIATION
Some people are told mediation is required in every Colorado divorce, and others assume it is optional. Neither is quite right, because there is no single statewide statute requiring mediation in every divorce.
Under C.R.S. 13-22-311, any court of record may, in its discretion, refer a case to mediation, but it shall not do so when a party claims to have been the victim of physical or psychological abuse by the other party and is unwilling to mediate for that reason. C.R.S. 14-10-124 separately lets the court order mediation to help parents create or carry out a parenting plan.
Local orders fill in the rest. In the Fourth Judicial District, a blanket mediation order covering El Paso and Teller counties requires a mediation session of at least two hours, held remotely, before a court hearing in domestic cases, and a party unwilling to mediate because of claimed physical or psychological abuse by the other may ask the court for a waiver. El Paso County's case management order (form FCF 400) adds that a final orders date may be canceled or the case dismissed if mediation is not completed.
If your case is in another district, check the orders issued in your case. Mediation does not mean you must agree to anything: a mediator is a neutral person who helps both sides negotiate, so finish your disclosures first and get legal advice before you sign.
MISTAKE 9: POSTING, TEXTING AND VENTING
Texts, emails and social media posts often end up as exhibits in family cases. Assume anything you write to or about your spouse could be read aloud in court.
Hostile messages can also run into the automatic temporary injunction, which bars both spouses from molesting or disturbing the peace of the other. In parenting disputes, one factor the court weighs is each parent's ability to encourage the sharing of love, affection and contact between the child and the other parent, and a pattern of disparaging posts reflects on that factor.
- Do not post about the case, your spouse or the children's schedule.
- Keep messages to your spouse short, factual and focused on logistics.
- Never use the children to carry messages.
- Do not log into your spouse's email, phone or accounts without permission.
MISTAKE 10: FORGETTING INSURANCE AND BENEFICIARIES
During the case, the injunction protects existing coverage: neither spouse may cancel, modify or let lapse the listed health, home, auto or life insurance without 14 days' notice and written consent or a court order. The larger risk comes after the decree.
Under C.R.S. 14-10-122, maintenance ends on the death of either party unless the spouses agreed otherwise in writing or the decree says otherwise. Child support is different: it is not ended by the death of the parent who pays it, but the amount may be modified, revoked or turned into a lump-sum payment. Life insurance written into the agreement is a common way to protect either stream of payments.
Colorado's probate code, C.R.S. 15-11-804, revokes many revocable gifts and beneficiary designations in favor of a former spouse when a divorce or annulment is final, unless the document, a court order or the property agreement says otherwise. It does not apply to a legal separation that leaves the marriage in place, and federal law can control some employer plans, so update every beneficiary form, will and power of attorney yourself.
MISTAKE 11: TREATING THE DECREE AS THE FINISH LINE
A decree is a set of instructions, and someone has to carry them out. Deeds and vehicle titles may need to be transferred, a home refinanced or sold, joint accounts closed, and retirement division orders prepared and sent to the plan.
Life will also change. Under C.R.S. 14-10-122, maintenance can be modified when changed circumstances are so substantial and continuing as to make the terms unfair, and child support when there is a substantial and continuing change, but the order changes only when the court changes it.
The Judicial Branch lists a $105 fee for a motion to modify a decree or final order filed more than 60 days after the order. See our pages on post-decree modifications and modifying a Colorado child support order for what that process involves.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Is Mediation Required for a Divorce in Colorado?
No single statewide statute requires mediation in every Colorado divorce, but courts may refer cases to mediation. In the Fourth Judicial District (El Paso and Teller counties), a blanket order requires mediation before a court hearing in domestic cases, and a party who claims physical or psychological abuse by the other may ask the court to waive it.
Can Maintenance Last Forever in Colorado?
For marriages longer than 20 years, a court may order maintenance for an indefinite term. Even then, unless the spouses agreed otherwise in writing or the decree expressly says otherwise, maintenance ends when either party dies or the recipient remarries or enters a civil union, and it can generally be modified if circumstances change substantially and continuingly. What wording an agreement needs to continue maintenance after remarriage is a question now before the Colorado Supreme Court.
Can I Move Money Out of a Joint Account After Filing for Divorce?
The automatic temporary injunction under C.R.S. 14-10-107 bars both spouses from transferring, concealing or disposing of marital property without consent or a court order, except in the usual course of business or for necessities of life. Extraordinary expenditures require notice to the other spouse and an accounting to the court.
What Happens If I Do Not Respond to Divorce Papers in Colorado?
You generally have 21 days after service in Colorado, or 35 days if served outside Colorado or by publication, to file a Response. If you do not respond, the matters in the petition may be decided without further notice to you.
TALKING WITH A COLORADO SPRINGS FAMILY LAW ATTORNEY
Many of these mistakes are easier to prevent than to fix. If you are about to file, have just been served, or are carrying out a decree, a conversation about your deadlines and orders can help you plan your next steps.
For related questions, see our guides on whether you need a divorce lawyer, what a Colorado divorce costs, how divorce affects children, and the Colorado divorce timeline.
Moran, Allen & Associates Family Law Attorneys represents clients in divorce cases in Colorado Springs and throughout El Paso and Teller counties. Call (719) 447-0762 in Colorado Springs or (719) 686-7554 in Woodland Park, or schedule a free consultation to talk through your situation.
This article is general information about Colorado law as of October 2026 and is not legal advice. Statutes, court rules and local orders change, and every case turns on its own facts, so speak with a licensed Colorado attorney about your situation.
SOURCES
- C.R.S. 14-10-106, Dissolution of Marriage and Legal Separation (91-day requirements)
- C.R.S. 14-10-107, Commencement and Automatic Temporary Injunction
- C.R.S. 14-10-113, Disposition of Property
- C.R.S. 14-10-114, Spousal Maintenance and Advisory Guidelines
- C.R.S. 14-10-122, Modification and Termination of Maintenance and Support
- C.R.S. 14-10-124, Best Interests of the Child and Parenting Plans
- C.R.S. 13-22-311, Court Referral to Mediation
- C.R.S. 15-11-804, Revocation of Transfers to a Former Spouse by Divorce
- Colorado Judicial Branch, Summons for Divorce or Legal Separation (JDF 1012)
- Fourth Judicial District, Blanket Order to Alternative Dispute Resolution/Mediation in Domestic Cases (FCF 300A)
- El Paso County District Court (Fourth Judicial District), Domestic Relations Case Management Order (FCF 400, rev. August 2026)
- Colorado Supreme Court, In re Marriage of Schelp (2010), quoting C.R.C.P. 16.2(e)(1) and (e)(10)
- Colorado Supreme Court, Order of Court, May 18, 2026 (certiorari granted, In re Marriage of Clark, No. 25SC634)
- Colorado Judicial Branch, List of Fees (January 2025 publication)