Annulment in Colorado: the grounds, the deadlines, and what the decree divides.

The grounds and their deadlines: seven reasons, four clocks.

“The district court shall enter its decree declaring the invalidity of a marriage entered into under the following circumstances” (C.R.S. § 14-10-111(1)). Each ground carries its own time limit and its own list of who may raise it (C.R.S. § 14-10-111(2), (3)).

Two grounds that changed underneath the statute.

Underage marriage. The ground still speaks of a spouse without “the consent of his parents or guardian or judicial approval.” The licensing statute no longer allows parental consent alone: since 2019 a license issues only on proof that each party is eighteen or, if over sixteen and under eighteen, “has judicial approval” (C.R.S. § 14-2-106(1)(a)(I)), and a violation “makes the marriage voidable” (C.R.S. § 14-2-106(1)(b)). A common-law marriage entered on or after September 1, 2006 is not recognized unless both parties were eighteen or older and the marriage is not prohibited (C.R.S. § 14-2-109.5(1)).

Bigamy and civil unions. The prohibited-marriage list includes a marriage entered before the dissolution of an earlier civil union of one of the parties, unless the civil union was between the same two people (C.R.S. § 14-2-110(1)(a.5)). A civil union has its own invalidity procedure (C.R.S. § 14-15-115). Whether an informal marriage exists at all is its own question: see Common Law Marriage.

Who may file, and where: domicile, the children, and the death bar.

The threshold rules are short, and two of them are routinely misstated.

Fraud, duress and capacity: what the proof looks like.

An invalidity case is won or lost on two facts: what happened before the wedding, and when you learned of it.

The six months start when you learn the truth, not when you decide what to do about it.

What the decree divides: property, maintenance, children, the prenup.

Invalidity does not erase the years. The statute sends the money and the children through the same provisions as a divorce, with two twists: the decree reaches back to the wedding, and the court may refuse to reward a fraud.

Property and maintenance.

The court divides property and may award maintenance as in a divorce, whether or not anyone is a putative spouse, but it will not reward the spouse who committed the fraud.

The same authority as in a divorce. In Nguyen v. Lai, 2022 COA 141, the Court of Appeals held that “a court that declares a marriage invalid is vested with the same authority to divide the parties’ property acquired during the invalid marriage as if the court had dissolved a valid marriage,” and that “nothing in the plain language of section 14-10-111(6) conditions the court’s authority to address the spouses’ property on a determination that one of them is a putative spouse.”

But not a reward for fraud. In Joel & Roohi, the wife had married “solely to obtain legal residency.” The court held that “property should not be divided in a manner that effectively treats the marriage as valid where doing so would reward the guilty party for his or her fraud,” and that if a party committed fraud in inducing the marriage, “an award of maintenance to that party would not be equitable or ‘just.’” Property is still valued as of the decree.

A revived maintenance award. Maintenance from an earlier marriage ends on the recipient’s remarriage unless the parties agreed otherwise or the decree says so (C.R.S. § 14-10-122(2)). Whether it revives when the later marriage is annulled is decided case by case, on the facts and the equities (In re Marriage of Cargill & Rollins, 843 P.2d 1335 (Colo. 1993)).

The prenuptial agreement. “If a marriage is determined to be void, a premarital agreement or marital agreement is enforceable to the extent necessary to avoid an inequitable result” (C.R.S. § 14-2-308). See Prenuptial Agreements.

The children.

“The parent and child relationship extends equally to every child and to every parent, regardless of the marital status of the parents” (C.R.S. § 19-4-103). A child born during an attempted marriage that “is or could be declared invalid,” or within 300 days after it ends, is presumed to be the child of both (C.R.S. § 19-4-105(1)(b)). A final order in an invalidity case that identifies a child of the marriage, or orders support without disclaiming paternity, is deemed an adjudication of parentage (C.R.S. § 14-10-106(1)(c)). Parenting time, decision-making and child support are decided exactly as in a divorce: see Parentage & Paternity and Child Support. The old provisions calling the children of an invalid marriage legitimate were repealed in 2018 as outdated. Nothing replaced them, because the parentage statutes already make marital status irrelevant.

Forms, fees, and the missing injunction: how the case moves.

The court’s guide is JDF 1040, revised March 1, 2024. The case looks like a divorce on paper, with three differences that matter.

1. Filing
   The petition.

   JDF 1000 (the case information sheet) and JDF 1041 (the petition): the ground, the date you learned of it, the children, the relief you want, and, in section 12, a request to restore a prior name (see Name Change After Divorce). The filing fee is $230, plus a $5 assessment under C.R.S. § 14-10-120.5.

2. Service
   Summons, waiver or return.

   JDF 1042 (the summons): twenty-one days to respond, thirty-five if served outside Colorado or by publication. JDF 1043 (waiver) or JDF 1044 (return of service). The response is JDF 1045; the respondent’s fee is $116.

3. 42 days
   Disclosures and the first conference.

   Sworn financial statements (JDF 1111) and the certificate of compliance (JDF 1104) within forty-two days; the initial status conference is set in the same window.

4. Agreement or trial
   Proving the ground.

   An agreement on property and support (JDF 1115), a support order (JDF 1117) and a parenting plan (JDF 1113) where there are children. A contested ground is tried.

5. The decree
   Invalid as of the wedding.

   JDF 1049. The marriage is declared invalid as of the date of the marriage, and the property, maintenance and parenting orders enter with it.

Invalidity and divorce, side by side.

The injunction that is not there.

In a divorce, the automatic temporary injunction arises “upon the filing of a petition for dissolution of marriage or legal separation” (C.R.S. § 14-10-107(4)(b)) and restrains both spouses from transferring, encumbering, concealing or disposing of marital property outside the usual course. The statute does not mention invalidity; the court’s annulment summons carries no injunction, and the divorce summons does. A spouse worried about assets has two answers: a motion for temporary orders, which the statute allows in an invalidity case, including orders restraining transfers of property (C.R.S. § 14-10-108); or a petition that pleads dissolution in the alternative. See Temporary Orders.

No statutory wait, but not fast. The ninety-one-day rule applies by its terms to decrees of dissolution and legal separation (C.R.S. § 14-10-106(1)(a)(III)); the invalidity statute has none. The disclosure schedule, the status conference and the need to prove the ground still apply, and a ground that fails can turn the case into a divorce.

Stopping the case. The court’s guide warns that if both of you want to stop, you must notify the court immediately, or you “could get automatically divorced.” The filing is a stipulated motion to dismiss (JDF 1305).

Fees. $230 to file and $116 to respond (C.R.S. § 13-32-101(1)(a), (b)), set to fall to $225 and $111 on July 1, 2027, plus the $5 assessment. Confirm the total with the clerk.

When the annulment fails: In re Marriage of Carey (2026).

A petition for invalidity that fails on the ground does not have to end the case. The Court of Appeals said so in January 2026.

The case, and the holding.

If the invalidity ground fails, the case can be amended to a dissolution, and the ninety-one days run from service of the invalidity petition.

In In re Marriage of Carey, 2026 COA 3, the husband petitioned for a declaration of invalidity on the ground of incapacity. The magistrate found the marriage valid. The husband, who was terminally ill, then asked for a dissolution. His oral request was treated as an amendment of the petition under C.R.C.P. 15, a decree of dissolution entered, and the Court of Appeals affirmed.

The question was the ninety-one days, which run from the time the court acquires jurisdiction over the respondent. The answer: “The court acquired jurisdiction over the respondent by personal service of the petition for invalidity … Because the court therefore had jurisdiction over wife for 127 days before the dissolution decree was issued, the court’s order aligned with the statute.”

What it means for your case.

An invalidity petition starts the divorce clock. If the ground fails, the ninety-one days have been running since service of the invalidity petition, not since a new filing.

Plead with the alternative in mind. Where the ground is uncertain, say so early. A petition that asks for invalidity and, in the alternative, dissolution protects the timeline and puts the other spouse on notice of both.

It cuts both ways. A spouse served with an invalidity petition should assume a divorce may follow in the same case, and prepare the financial case accordingly.

Putative spouses, and church annulments: two different questions.

The putative spouse.

“A person who has cohabited with another to whom he or she is not legally married in the good faith belief that he or she was married to that person is a putative spouse until knowledge of the fact that he or she is not legally married terminates his or her status and prevents acquisition of further rights. A putative spouse acquires the rights conferred upon a legal spouse, including the right to maintenance following termination of his or her status, whether or not the marriage is prohibited under section 14-2-110, declared invalid, or otherwise terminated by court action” (C.R.S. § 14-2-111).

Three things follow. Good faith is the whole test: a person who knew the other was still married to someone else is not a putative spouse, whatever ceremony took place. The status ends on knowledge: the day you learn the earlier divorce was never final, you stop acquiring rights, though the rights already acquired, including maintenance, survive. A legal spouse keeps priority: where there is one, or another putative spouse, “the court shall apportion property, maintenance, and support rights among the claimants as appropriate in the circumstances and in the interests of justice.” And after Nguyen v. Lai, the court’s power to divide property in an invalidity case does not depend on a putative-spouse finding.

Religious and civil annulment.

A religious annulment is a decision of a religious body under its own rules. It has no effect on a civil marriage, and a civil decree of invalidity or dissolution has no effect on a religious one. People sometimes need both. They are separate proceedings with separate standards: I handle the civil case, and the religious question belongs to the religious body. A spouse who needs a religious annulment in order to remarry within a faith should ask that body what it requires, rather than assume the civil case will answer the question.

Six things people get wrong.

What to bring, and what to settle first.

The annulment questions that fill my inbox.

Related: Divorce in Colorado  ·  Legal Separation  ·  Common Law Marriage  ·  Prenuptial Agreements  ·  Temporary Orders