Spousal maintenance in Colorado (known as alimony in some other states) is governed by statutory guidelines. The guidelines within Colorado statutes determine both a presumed duration and amount of maintenance based on the length of the marriage and the incomes of the parties. It’s crucial to know what those guidelines are and what can cause the court to deviate from them, but it’s equally important to analyze the first question in the Court’s analysis: “is this case a maintenance case?”
Maintenance is not automatic under Colorado law, and it is not warranted in every case. To determine if maintenance is warranted the Court will consider several major factors. Those factors include:
- Each party’s income;
- The marital property awarded to each party;
- The general financial resources of each party;
- The reasonable financial needs of each party “as established during the marriage;” and
- The length of the marriage.
Some of the factors tend to overlap with one another, and they all generally fall into three distinct categories: length of marriage, need, habit/practice.
Length of Marriage
The Colorado statutory guidelines only apply to marriages that lasted for at least 3 years. For marriages of 3 years or more the guidelines establish a baseline duration and amount of spousal maintenance, with the duration of maintenance being longer for longer marriages. However, the statute is remarkably unclear when it comes to marriages of less than 3 years.
This all means that courts in Colorado can still establish maintenance for marriages of less than 3 years if warranted, even though there are no statutory guidelines, but without guidelines the duration and amount of maintenance are left completely to the discretion of the Court. Most judges tend to believe that maintenance is generally not warranted for marriages shorter than 3 years, so if you find yourself in that situation be sure to speak with your attorney about your specific circumstances and if they could warrant maintenance.
Need
There are circumstances where the Court would likely determine that there is no need for maintenance regardless of the length of marriage. For example, if there is no significant separate property (think inheritance or assets owned before the marriage) and both parties earn about the same amount there likely would not be any order for maintenance.
Or imagine a hypothetical situation where the husband of a long term marriage has $2 million in separate property but earns only $50,000/year. Meanwhile, the wife has no separate property and earns $150,000/year. The significant difference in income between the parties would typically warrant a maintenance order, but given the husband’s separate property the Court could find that the “general financial resources” of the parties are so unbalanced that no maintenance is warranted. Another scenario, where maintenance is increased due on one party having a higher income and significant separate property is also possible.
Habit/Practice
The lifestyle established during the marriage can also impact if a maintenance order is established. So, if it both parties make a reasonable living wage but the parties lived a luxurious lifestyle together, then there’s an possible argument that a maintenance order should be established to allow the parties to maintain their pre-dissolution quality of life.
While the statute does allow the court to consider the lifestyle maintained by the couple during the marriage, there are some common sense based considerations that such an argument has to overcome. One of which is that when a couple splits and one household becomes two households more of the parties’ joint income will go to basic expenses like mortgage, utilities, food, etc. This means that the joint income will not go as far as it did before and the parties cannot both maintain their pre-dissolution lifestyle or level of spending. Additionally, some judges tend to view a dissolution proceeding as an opportunity to encourage the parties to rework budgets and reign in certain expenses. Given those issues, arguments that a maintenance order should be established to maintain a certain pre-dissolution lifestyle need to be carefully constructed and presented to be effective.
More Information
People often ask about Colorado’s guideline maintenance calculations and how they are determined, but jumping right into that question alone can lead to an incorrect understanding of the procedure. If maintenance is an issue in your case, be sure to consider all factors that go into granting or denying a request for maintenance, not just the statutory guidelines. Once you determine your case is a maintenance case, you can then look at the statutory guidelines for maintenance here: https://www.courts.state.co.us/Forms/Forms_List.cfm?Form_Type_ID=94. If you have any questions about the maintenance procedure in Colorado, or your case specifically, feel free to reach out to me directly at DillieLawOffice@gmail.com or (720) 507-3105. Check out the other articles at https://www.dillielaw.com/blog/ for more information on all things family law in Colorado.