Dissolving a Short Marriage With No Kids in Colorado
No parenting plan and no guideline maintenance term. Two or three things still have to be written down correctly.
Married under three years, no children, a rented apartment, a car loan in both names, and one 401(k) that one of you opened shortly before the wedding.
That is the profile this page covers.
What drops out is the parenting phase: no parenting plan, no parenting-time schedule, no child-support worksheet.
If a child was born, adopted, or is expected, if the two of you own a house or a business, or if one of you is contesting a term, this page is not describing your case.
We handle this profile at Novo Legal Group, and it gets its own page because a case with three moving parts is the case where one of them gets skipped.
See the whole process first. The step-by-step walkthrough for any agreed Colorado case: Uncontested Divorce in Colorado.
Last reviewed: September 8, 2026
What a Short-Marriage Divorce in Colorado Leaves Out
Two things come off the table: the parenting phase, and the maintenance guideline, which under C.R.S. § 14-10-114(3)(b)(II)(A) runs only for marriages of at least three years.
Three years is a statutory line for maintenance. A four-year marriage with no children and one bank account reads like this profile too.
The shorter the list, the more each item on it is worth getting right, and we say so at intake.
Is This Your Case? A Short Test
Run this against your own facts.
- You married roughly three years ago or less.
- No child was born or adopted during the marriage, and neither of you is pregnant.
- Nothing between you is jointly titled real estate, and neither of you owns a business.
- At most one retirement account sits between you.
- Both of you will sign a sworn financial statement under penalty of perjury.
- Neither of you is being pressured, and there is no protection order or domestic-violence allegation.
Six for six and you are on the right page.
Miss one, and the one you missed is what the consultation is about.
If a child was born or adopted during the marriage, read Uncontested Divorce in Colorado, or Allocation of Parental Responsibilities for the parenting piece.
Where either of you is not a U.S. citizen, read the conditional-residence item below before anyone signs.
We would rather send you two clicks away than sell you a profile that does not fit.
What Changes When the Marriage Was Short and There Are No Kids
The absent parenting plan is only the first change. Three others matter more.
The maintenance guideline term does not reach a marriage this short
C.R.S. § 14-10-114(3)(b)(II)(A) sets the advisory maintenance term for marriages of at least three years and not more than twenty. Below three years no advisory term applies, so a court has no guideline duration to start from.
That is not immunity. C.R.S. § 14-10-114(3)(h) lets a court award maintenance in a marriage shorter than three years where distributing the marital property is insufficient to achieve an equitable result.
Colorado has published no formula for that award. This is the piece of the profile the law leaves unsettled, and the one we refuse to predict for anybody.
The guideline math lives on our spousal maintenance page.
What you brought in, and what you built together
C.R.S. § 14-10-113(2) makes marital property everything either spouse acquired after the wedding, with exceptions that include gift, bequest, devise or descent, property acquired in exchange for what someone owned beforehand, and property the two of you validly agreed to exclude.
A premarital asset stays separate, but its appreciation does not.
Under C.R.S. § 14-10-113(4) a premarital asset counts as marital property only to the extent its present value exceeds its value at the time of the marriage, which is why a 401(k) opened six months before the wedding is partly marital and partly separate.
Colorado has no short-marriage property rule. The difference is arithmetic.
Annulment is a narrower thing, and shortness is not one of its grounds
A declaration of invalidity, Colorado’s closest equivalent to an annulment, turns on the circumstances under which the marriage was entered. C.R.S. § 14-10-111(1) lists grounds including lack of capacity to consent, reliance on a fraudulent act or representation of the other party that goes to the essence of the marriage, duress, a marriage entered as a jest or dare, and a marriage prohibited by law. Most of them carry a filing deadline measured in months.
Duration is not on the list.
Whether any of those grounds reaches a particular marriage is a fact question we answer at a consultation.
The Colorado Process, Only Where It Differs
The full walkthrough lives on the dissolution pillar and the agreed-case version on Uncontested Divorce in Colorado. Two points diverge here.
Colorado has no simplified divorce track, and the affidavit route is not one
The decree-upon-affidavit route gets described online as the quickest and easiest way to divorce in Colorado. C.R.S. § 14-10-120.3(2) says otherwise, stating that filing the affidavit does not shorten any statutory waiting period.
What it can remove is the requirement that anyone appear in court, on JDF 1018, Affidavit for Decree without Appearance. Under subsection (3) the court may still set the matter for hearing. This profile clears the first of the statute’s four conditions without effort, because C.R.S. § 14-10-120.3(1)(a) is satisfied where there are no minor children and neither spouse is pregnant.
The 91-day floor holds either way. A Colorado court cannot enter a decree until at least 91 days have elapsed since it acquired jurisdiction over the responding party, which happens when that party is served under C.R.C.P. Rule 4, joins as a copetitioner, or otherwise enters an appearance. C.R.S. § 14-10-106(1)(a)(III).
Full treatment of the clock belongs to How long a Colorado divorce takes.
The sworn disclosures do not scale down with the estate
Each spouse files JDF 1111, Sworn Financial Statement, and JDF 1104, Certificate of Compliance, within 42 days of filing or receiving the petition, under C.R.C.P. 16.2(e)(2). One checking account and one 401(k) is still a disclosure.
Skipping it has a five-year tail: under C.R.C.P. 16.2(e)(10) a Colorado court keeps jurisdiction for five years after the decree to reallocate assets a party misstated or omitted.
We fill these out with clients line by line, and current forms live on the Colorado Judicial Branch’s divorce and separation self-help pages.
Why This Is the Model Case for a Licensed Legal Paraprofessional
Colorado authorized the Licensed Legal Paraprofessional under C.R.C.P. 207.1 to represent clients in defined domestic-relations matters, dissolution included. Fernanda Soto, Licensed Legal Paraprofessional (LLP), carries these files at Novo Legal Group in English and in Spanish.
One myth first. Colorado does not cap LLP cases by size. The state regulator’s LLP FAQ states there is no cap on LLP fees and no income or asset restriction on the clients they serve.
The boundary is subject matter.
Preparing a QDRO or any other order dividing retirement assets sits outside LLP scope under C.R.C.P. 207.1, and so does an immigration issue that bears on the outcome. We keep both tracks on one file so the retirement order does not send you to a second firm.
More on the model: Licensed Legal Paraprofessional in Colorado, and LLP vs. Attorney. Whether you need anyone at all: Do I need a lawyer to get divorced in Colorado?
The Two or Three Things That Still Go Wrong
The Colorado Judicial Branch reported on July 27, 2026 that 76 percent of individual parties in domestic relations cases had no representation at all across the fiscal year ending June 2026. That category is broader than divorce, and it is still the pool these four failures come out of.
The joint debt nobody assigned in writing
A car loan in both names stays in both names after the decree. Your lender never signed your separation agreement, so whichever of you the collections department reaches is the one it keeps calling.
We write the fix into agreements that carry a joint debt: an actor, a date, and a consequence, naming who refinances or pays off the loan, by when, and what happens if they do not.
Two years of retirement contributions nobody valued
“It is not much” is the exact phrase that leaves an account undivided.
A decree does not move money out of a retirement plan. Only a separate order does that, and which order depends on the plan.
A private employer plan takes a qualified domestic relations order. Colorado PERA takes its own Agreement for Domestic Relations Order, which PERA states must be used and signed by the parties without changes or alterations. PERA also runs its own clock: it states the DRO Agreement must be submitted no later than 90 days after the divorce decree is final, and that certified copies of the Agreement and Order, with a copy of the decree, must reach PERA within 90 days after entry of the Agreement and Order.
In GAO-20-541, issued July 31, 2020, the U.S. Government Accountability Office reported that about one third of divorced people whose former spouse had a retirement plan also reported losing their claim to those benefits.
Drafting that order is the seam where the LLP hands the pen to an attorney, on the same file.
The conditional-resident spouse who signs before understanding the timing
Conditional permanent residence obtained through marriage runs two years, and the band this page describes runs under about three. Those windows sit on top of each other, which is why this failure is on the list.
Immigration analysis sits outside LLP scope under C.R.C.P. 207.1, so it goes to an attorney regardless of which track handles the dissolution. We do not predict federal timing on a web page. What we do is ask at intake, before the agreement is drafted, who holds what status and how it was obtained.
Our page on Divorce and Your Green Card in Colorado carries the full treatment, including Form I-751 and the Form I-864 affidavit of support. If there has been abuse in the marriage, VAWA Self-Petition and Your Colorado Family-Law Case covers a federal route that can remain available to some people whose marriage has ended.
Call before you file anything.
The lease, the deposit, and the joint checking account
Who stays in the apartment, and where the security deposit goes, are two sentences that cost nothing and prevent a small-claims problem.
The joint checking account is the same: name a closing date and a split.
A short marriage does not raise the stakes on any single issue.
It shortens the list, and a skipped item off a list of three costs what a skipped item off a list of fifteen costs. That is the whole argument for paying a professional to write three sentences correctly, and we make it without apology.
When This Is Not a Short-Marriage, No-Kids Case
Some of these are judgment calls. Most are not.
- A child born, adopted, or expected during the marriage.
- Real estate the two of you hold jointly.
- A business, a professional practice, or an ownership interest in one.
- More than one retirement account, or one you want divided by a professionally drafted order.
- An asset one of you suspects the other has not disclosed.
- A protection order or a domestic-violence allegation.
- Either of you contesting a term.
The retirement item is a bridge, not an exit. Those files stay at Novo Legal Group and an attorney drafts the dividing order.
We would rather route a file to our own attorney track than stretch a page over a case it does not fit.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Colorado have a simplified or faster divorce for short marriages?
No. Colorado has one dissolution of marriage case type, and a marriage of eighteen months files the same petition as one of eighteen years. The decree-without-appearance route under C.R.S. § 14-10-120.3, on JDF 1018, can remove the requirement that anyone appear in court, though under subsection (3) the court may still set a hearing. Subsection (2) states that filing the affidavit does not shorten any statutory waiting period.
Will either of us owe spousal maintenance after a marriage this short?
The advisory guideline term under C.R.S. § 14-10-114(3)(b)(II)(A) applies to marriages of at least three years, so a shorter marriage carries no guideline duration. C.R.S. § 14-10-114(3)(h) still lets a court award maintenance in a marriage shorter than three years where distributing the marital property is insufficient to achieve an equitable result.
Can we get an annulment instead of a divorce in Colorado?
Colorado’s equivalent is a declaration of invalidity of marriage, and its grounds under C.R.S. § 14-10-111 turn on the circumstances under which the marriage was entered. The statute lists no ground based on duration, and most of the grounds it does list carry a filing deadline measured in months. Whether any of them reaches a specific marriage is a fact question for a consultation.
What happens to a joint credit card or car loan after the decree?
Nothing automatic. A creditor is not a party to your divorce and is not bound by your separation agreement, so a joint account stays joint until somebody refinances it or pays it off. Assigning responsibility in the agreement gives you a remedy against your former spouse. It gives the lender nothing, and no reason to release you.
Can a Licensed Legal Paraprofessional handle a short-marriage divorce in Colorado?
For most of this profile, yes. C.R.C.P. 207.1 authorizes an LLP to represent clients in defined domestic-relations matters, dissolution of marriage included, and Colorado’s LLP regulator states there is no income or asset restriction on the clients an LLP serves. An order dividing retirement assets and any immigration issue still require an attorney, and we keep that work on the same file.
What to Do Now
Every attorney at Novo Legal Group is bilingual, and se habla español at every office. Our family-law practice runs this profile on both tracks, and we draft the two or three terms that matter so a judge can enforce them.
The court’s fee for a petition for dissolution, legal separation, or invalidity is listed at $260 on the Colorado Judicial Branch fee schedule, published January 2025 under C.R.S. § 13-32-101. This is typically the least expensive dissolution profile Colorado has, and the breakdown belongs to What a Colorado divorce costs.
If you are agreed and neither of you holds a retirement account, bring your lease and your account statements to a consultation.
If one of you holds a 401(k) or PERA service credit, say so in the first five minutes.
If one of you holds status through the marriage, call before anyone signs anything.
Related Reading
- Dissolution of Marriage in Colorado
- Uncontested Divorce in Colorado
- Colorado Family Law: Attorney or LLP, Under One Roof
- What Is a Licensed Legal Paraprofessional (LLP) in Colorado?
- LLP vs. Attorney in Colorado Family Law
- Spousal Maintenance in Colorado
- Divorce and Your Green Card in Colorado
- VAWA Self-Petition and Your Colorado Family-Law Case
- Allocation of Parental Responsibilities in Colorado
- Colorado Judicial Branch: Divorce and Separation self-help