Practice Area · The Process
Legal separation vs. divorce.
Colorado offers a decree that divides property, sets maintenance, and allocates parenting exactly as a divorce would — while leaving the marriage legally intact. For a small set of clients, that distinction is worth real money, or reflects real conviction.
Same Process, Different Decree
Everything divides; the status remains.
A legal separation in Colorado proceeds through the same court process as dissolution — the same financial disclosures, the same equitable division of property, the same maintenance and parenting frameworks — but the final decree leaves the parties married. Neither can remarry. The financial untangling is just as complete and just as final; only the marital status survives. It's not a lighter version of divorce — it's the same machine producing a different last page.
Why Choose It
Insurance, timing, conviction.
Three reasons dominate. Health insurance: divorce terminates a spouse's coverage eligibility, and for a spouse with serious health needs, continued coverage can be worth more than any negotiated asset — though many plans treat a decree of legal separation as a terminating event too, so the actual policy language must be verified before this becomes the strategy. Benefits timing: certain federal benefits, including Social Security spousal benefits, key off marriage duration thresholds such as ten years — a marriage at year nine may be worth finishing on paper. And conviction: for clients whose faith or family structure forecloses divorce, separation resolves the finances without the label.
The Conversion Right
Separation is rarely the last word.
Colorado law allows either party to convert a decree of legal separation into a decree of dissolution on motion, no earlier than six months after the separation decree enters — and conversion cannot meaningfully be resisted. Practically, that makes legal separation a waystation either party can end. Negotiate the separation agreement as if it were a divorce settlement, because with one motion, it becomes one.
Tax & Financial Status
The label changes federal treatment.
Spouses who are legally separated under a decree are generally treated as unmarried for federal income-tax filing purposes — which surprises clients who assumed the surviving marriage preserved joint filing. Beneficiary designations, estate plans, and survivorship rights all need the same post-decree overhaul a divorce would trigger; the intact marital status does far less automatic work than people expect. This is another place the tax strategy analysis runs before the papers are chosen, not after.
Choosing
A decision about facts, not feelings about finality.
The choice between separation and dissolution is a spreadsheet-and-policy-documents decision: what does the health plan actually say, which benefit clocks are running, what does each party need the status for, and how stable is the détente. I've guided clients in both directions — and occasionally through a separation that later converted, exactly as designed. What matters is choosing with the documents open.
The rest of this chapter.
How a Colorado divorce actually moves: temporary orders, mediation and litigation, privacy, and what happens when an order has to be modified, enforced, or appealed.
- Divorce in Coloradohow the process actually works→
- Mediation & Litigationsettle from strength→
- Privacy & Discretionengineered from the first filing→
- Emergency & Protection Ordersthe automatic injunction, and urgent relief→
- Modificationswhich door you knock on matters→
- Enforcement & Contemptorders are only as good as their enforcement→
- Appealswon at trial, by the record→
- Common Law Marriagewhether a marriage exists at all→
- Legal Separationsame process, different decreeYou are here
- Temporary Ordersthe first ninety days, governed→
- Attorney Fees & Costsfee-shifting and the level playing field→
- Protection Ordersthe shield, and the defense against it→
Engagement
Whether the right decree is separation or dissolution, the division deserves the same rigor.
A consultation is a scheduled working session — in person in Greenwood Village or by video — in which we go through your situation and I tell you what I would do. It is a paid meeting, not a free call and not a sales pitch; my assistant quotes the consultation fee when you schedule. There is no chatbot here: the contact form and the phone both reach my office, my assistant reviews every inquiry personally, and the meeting goes on my calendar. Please hold the confidential details until we have run a conflicts check.