Practice Area · Post-Decree
Modifying orders when life changes.
Divorce orders are built on a snapshot; life keeps moving. Colorado allows modification — but the standard depends entirely on which order you're trying to change. Which door you knock on determines how hard it opens.
Different Orders, Different Doors
The standards are not interchangeable.
Maintenance and child support are modifiable on a showing of substantial and continuing changed circumstances under C.R.S. § 14-10-122 — and for child support, a guideline recalculation of ten percent or more is the usual benchmark — a smaller swing is generally not enough by itself, though unusual circumstances can still matter. Parenting modifications are not all treated the same: some schedule adjustments turn on the child's best interests, while changes that would alter the child's primary residence or majority-time parent can face a higher statutory standard. Getting the standard right before filing is half the motion.
What Counts
Substantial, continuing — and credible.
Involuntary job loss, disability, retirement at a customary age, a genuine and durable change in either side's income — these are the real ones. Voluntary underemployment is viewed skeptically: quitting a partnership to teach yoga rarely resets support. For business owners the recurring battleground is the down year: is it the market, or is it manufactured? The answer lives in the financials, and the owner with clean, contemporaneous records wins that argument. The one manufacturing the dip usually loses more than the motion.
Timing and Strategy
File early. Build the record first.
Modified support generally reaches back only to the filing of the motion — not to when the change happened; a different rule can apply after a court-ordered, voluntary, or mutually agreed change of physical care. Every month of waiting is a month at the old number. The disciplined sequence: document the change, establish that it's continuing, then file promptly. And where change is foreseeable — a sale of the company, a planned retirement — the smarter move is drafting the original agreement with defined review points, so the future is a calculation instead of a court fight.
Common Questions
The post-decree questions that fill my inbox.
My income dropped substantially. What now?
Document it immediately and file promptly if it's continuing — relief generally runs from the filing date, not from when the income fell. Then be ready to show the drop is real and involuntary; that showing is the whole motion.
My ex's income has gone way up. Can support increase?
Child support — potentially, if the recalculation clears the threshold. Maintenance is more fact-dependent and turns on the original order's terms, including whether it was made non-modifiable. Bring me the decree; the answer is usually written in it.
Can we modify by agreement without court?
You can agree — but until a court adopts it, the old order remains the enforceable one. Informal side deals about support are how good co-parents end up in enforcement hearings. Paper the agreement properly; it's quick and it protects you both.
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 mattersYou are here
- 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 decree→
- Temporary Ordersthe first ninety days, governed→
- Attorney Fees & Costsfee-shifting and the level playing field→
- Protection Ordersthe shield, and the defense against it→
Engagement
If your orders no longer match your life, let's fix them properly.
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.