THE MARRIAGE ZONE: REVIEWING YOUR WILL

THE MARRRIAGE ZONE: REVIEWING YOUR WILL
By Christopher C. Meyer  2010


This article is not about your personal determination. It is about your last will and testament. When should you review your will?

Generally speaking, you should review your will: whenever you have a major change in your personal situation; whenever you have a major change in your financial situation; or, annually, to determine if there are any changes in the law that should be reflected in your will. A divorce usually generates reasons to review your will because big personal and financial changes result.

If you already have a will, what happens to it if you get divorced? Married folks typically list their spouse as a beneficiary. Divorced folks rarely do this. After you are divorced, you usually don’t want much to do with a former spouse, much less gift them the property you have left after the divorce. Talk about adding insult to injury!

Fortunately for a lot of folks, the law assumes that you will forget to change your will after you are divorced and remove your now former spouse as a beneficiary. Absent an agreement between the parties or a Court order, a divorce invalidates testamentary (will) gifts to former spouses. The same is true for powers of attorney, insurance beneficiary designations, and pay on death designations for various accounts. The same is also true for folks who never had a will. If your estate passes via intestate succession, it is not going to a former spouse.

Situations may arise where there are good reasons to maintain a former spouse as a beneficiary in a will. An example might be to insure continued maintenance payments after a long-term marriage. The best practice in such instances is to make a new will after the divorce.

After you have exited from the marriage zone, you should make a new will. If you don’t, and your former spouse is your only beneficiary, when you pass away your property will be distributed according to the plan the legislature has determined for such situations (intestate succession) and involves your property being distributed to your closest blood relations.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice about your case.

Chris Meyer is an attorney practicing family law in Northern El Paso County. Chris’ law practice is limited to domestic relations cases. Chris has been practicing law since 1977. He is a former prosecutor and is licensed to practice law in Colorado, Florida, California and Wisconsin. Chris can be contacted at 719-488-9395. Chris’s website (www.cmeyerlaw.com) has additional divorce and family law information and many other articles.

Annulment In Colorado

The Marriage Zone: Annulment in Colorado
By Christopher C. Meyer
© February 2009


Under what circumstances can you get your marriage annulled in Colorado? In Colorado an annulment is referred to as a “declaration of invalidity”. Your marriage can be invalidated only under extremely limited circumstances.

There is a popular misconception that you can get your marriage invalidated if you only have been married for a short period of time, such a less than 90 days. Actually, the duration of your marriage has nothing to do with your eligibility for an annulment. There is no “get out of jail free card” just because you have been married for only a few months.

Colorado statutes set out the requirements for invalidating marriages. One of the parties has to have to have been domiciled in Colorado for at least 30 days. The requirements for invalidating a marriage basically involve: lack of meaningful consent to be married (I was so drunk I didn’t know I was getting married.); marriage to an ineligible person (the proverbial redneck jokes – your sister, a twelve year old, etc.); the marriage involves a fraud that goes to the essence of the marriage (my wife didn’t marry me because she loved me, she married me to get my money and she lied about her circumstances to get me to marry her.).

Children born of an invalidated marriage are legitimate. Property, support and child custody issues are determined on the same basis as if the parties had a valid marriage.

Marriage is serious business. There is no easy way out. You can’t get an annulment just because you have been married for a few days or months.

Good luck to you if you are contemplating an exit from the marriage zone, and keep in mind that you are going to have to get a divorce to do it unless your circumstances fit the limited requirements for an annulment.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice about your case.

Chris Meyer is an attorney practicing family law in northern El Paso County. Chris’ law practice is limited to domestic relations cases. Chris has been practicing law since 1977. He is a former prosecutor and is licensed to practice law in Colorado, Florida, California and Wisconsin. Chris can be contacted at 719-488-9395. Chris’s website (www.cmeyerlaw.com) has additional divorce and family law information including links to 25 other articles he has written.

Do You Need A Lawyer?

The Marriage Zone: Divorce - Do You Need a Lawyer?
By Christopher C. Meyer
© June 2008


Do you need a lawyer for your divorce? Many people do not use a lawyer. Some people cannot afford a lawyer. A simple analogy may help to determine whether or not to hire a lawyer.

Let’s assume that you have been in business partnership with another person for 15 years. Over time you gradually have become dissatisfied with the other person’s participation in the business. You want to sever your ties and carry on business on your own. Business has been fairly good during your partnership and the business has accumulated significant assets as well as some liabilities. At the time you entered into the partnership there was no agreement about what would happen when the partners decided to part ways. Do you feel confident that you can get your fair share of the business and eliminate any unnecessary liabilities without the assistance of an attorney? Are you confident that your partner will treat you with absolute fairness and provide you with all the information you need to make the best possible decisions? These issues are very similar to the issues you will encounter in a divorce.

If you have been married for a significant length of time, your divorce will be one of the biggest, if not the biggest, business transaction that you will ever be involved in. If you do not understand the divorce laws regarding the division of assets and liabilities, including complex assets such as pensions and retirement accounts, you may shortchange yourself. If you do not understand the laws regarding spousal support (alimony), you may get much less than you are entitled to. If you do not understand the divorce laws regarding child custody and child support, you may adversely impact your children’s lives. Do you understand the tax ramifications of all these aspects of a divorce? Divorces, just like business transactions, have tax consequences.

Do complex transactions involving big financial decisions and family responsibilities make you anxious? If you hire a lawyer, the lawyer should be able to shoulder most of the load and increase your confidence level that you are doing the right thing for you and your family.

A divorce proceeding is paperwork intensive. Do you enjoy doing paperwork? Do you prepare your own income taxes? Do you enjoy having externally created deadlines? A family law attorney handles divorces on a regular basis, and can handle all the paperwork for you.

Depending on your responses to these questions, you may want seriously to consider hiring a lawyer to help you with your divorce. If you already have a relationship with a lawyer, talk to her or him about it. There are many good family law attorneys to choose from.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice about your case.

Chris Meyer is an attorney practicing family law in Monument. Chris’ law practice is limited to domestic relations cases. Chris has been practicing law since 1977. He is a former prosecutor and is licensed to practice law in Colorado, Florida, California and Wisconsin. Chris can be contacted at 719-488-9395. Chris’s website (www.cmeyerlaw.com) has additional divorce and family law information.

Military Divorce

The Marriage Zone: Military Divorce
By
Christopher C. Meyer
 February 2008

There are so many people in the military in our area that divorces involving military personnel are commonplace. There is a popular misconception that divorces involving military personnel are different from civilian divorces. In fact, the differences between military divorces and civilian divorces are not very significant.

If you are in the military, and if you and your spouse have lived in Colorado for more than 90 days and your children have been here for more than six months, a Colorado court can divide your property and debts, determine whether maintenance (alimony) is appropriate, and make all decisions regarding parental responsibilities (parental decision-making and parenting time).

Military pensions are divided much the same as civilian pensions. There is another popular misconception that unless the spouse of the military service person has been married to the service person for at least ten years, the non-military spouse cannot receive part of the service person’s pension. Ten years is significant only in that the military will not pay part of the pension to the non-military spouse unless the ten-year requirement is met. This means is that if the marriage is less than ten years, the Court will order the service person to pay part of the retirement directly to the non-military spouse, rather than the military itself making the payment.

Some people in the military believe that they can convert part of their pension to disability and avoid paying part of the disability to the non-military spouse, thereby reducing the total amount the non-military spouse gets. It is correct that the Court cannot divide the disability. However, the Court can adjust the division of the pension or adjust the maintenance or property award to make up for the difference, so that the total amount awarded to the non-military spouse is not diminished by the disability.

If you are legally separated from a military spouse, you are still eligible for the same benefits you enjoy if you are married. This scenario is an example of a good reason to look into a legal separation in Colorado, rather than getting a divorce. If you have been married to a person in the military for twenty years while the military spouse has been active service for twenty years, you retain your military benefits such as health insurance, etc., even if you get a divorce.

Good luck with your military divorce or legal separation as you leave the marriage zone, and don’t believe all that you hear about additional complications.

Chris Meyer is an attorney practicing family law in Monument. Chris has been practicing law since 1977. He is a former prosecutor and is licensed to practice law in Colorado, Florida, California and Wisconsin. Chris can be contacted at 719-488-9395. Chris’s website (www.cmeyerlaw.com) has additional divorce and family law information.

Modification Of Maintenance Awards

The Marriage Zone: Modification of Maintenance Awards
By Christopher C. Meyer
© March 2008



After a few years have passed from the time of an original maintenance (alimony) award, questions often come up about whether the maintenance award can be modified. Modifying a maintenance award is not a simple matter. An important thing to keep in mind is that judgments, including divorce decrees and maintenance awards, are intended to be final and to provide a firm basis for the parties to be able to plan and predict their future activities. Courts don’t modify judgments unless there is an extremely good reason to do so.

Colorado statutes provide that a maintenance award can be modified if there are changed circumstances so substantial and continuing as to make the original terms of the award unfair. Please note that there are four basic requirements: changed circumstances; substantial change in circumstances; continuing change in circumstances; and the change must make the original terms unfair. A brief examination of each requirement can be helpful.

The requirement of a change from the circumstances existing at the time of the original award is often overlooked. The critical question is what is different now than it was at the time of the original award? If the only change is the passage of time, this not a change in circumstances that will provide a basis for modification. For example, an original award for maintenance is for three years. Three years have now passed and the ex-spouse receiving the maintenance can no longer afford to live in her house without continuing to receive the maintenance. There is no change in circumstances in this scenario and the maintenance award will not be modified.

Is there a substantial change in circumstances? Courts don’t care about minor changes in circumstances. What constitutes a “substantial change” cannot be precisely defined. However, the bigger the change in circumstances, the more likely the court will grant a modification.

Is there a continuing change in circumstances? If the change in circumstances is temporary, it won’t qualify. For example, if you work for commissions and business has been slow, the court may assume that your commissions will return to their average level and not grant you any relief.

Does the change in circumstances make the original terms of the maintenance award unfair? You can have a significant change in numbers that does not make the original terms of the maintenance award unfair. However, for example, if you become physically disabled and can now only work at a job that pays you half as much as you were getting at the time of the award, a court might think that this change in circumstances rendered the terms of the original award unfair.

Good luck with your maintenance modification, but give it some hard thought before you file, or you could be wasting your time. Also keep in mind that filing for a maintenance modification can be like poking a hornets’ nest with a stick. You may get a lot more excitement then you anticipated.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice about your case.

Chris Meyer is an attorney practicing family law in Monument. Chris has been practicing law since 1977. He is a former prosecutor and is licensed to practice law in Colorado, Florida, California and Wisconsin. Chris can be contacted at 719-488-9395. Chris’s website (www.cmeyerlaw.com) has additional divorce and family law information.

Planning For Divorce

The Marriage Zone – Planning For Divorce

by
Christopher C. Meyer
 June 2007

What should you do when you have exhausted all alternatives, such as counseling, and despite your best efforts, you are headed for divorce? What preparations are advisable when you are getting ready to leave the marriage zone and head out for the single life?

In terms of preparation, it is useful to think ahead and to imagine what your life will be like once you are divorced. For example, as a single person, you will need to have credit in your name. You might as well get started on getting credit solely in your name. You also want to get rid of joint credit with your spouse. This is especially true if you are a victim of DSS (Deadbeat Spouse Syndrome). So download your credit report and get to work: get rid of unnecessary credit cards; close as many joint accounts as you can, including bank accounts. The ideal divorce results in no joint debt or joint accounts after the divorce. You don’t want your ex-spouse to be able to mess up your credit after the divorce.

If you are unemployed or underemployed, the odds are you are going to have to contribute to your support - so get going! Take an inventory of your skills, think about what you enjoy doing, and explore the job market. The most effective method of job hunting is networking; let folks know you are looking for work. Judges are hardworking, self-made people. They appreciate folks who are trying to make it on their own.

Put off any big financial moves, like buying a house. Try to keep things simple. Remember that you will have to undo joint properties and debt in the divorce. Beware of incurring additional debt. If you need a car, don’t get one that includes a lot of debt. If you want to keep the car after the divorce, you are going to get the debt that is associated with it.

Keep in mind that there are certain actions you can take before the divorce is filed that are subject to an automatic temporary injunction after the case is filed. For example, after the divorce is filed, your ability to transfer or dispose of marital property is restricted, except in the usual course of business or for the necessities of life, unless you get your spouse’s consent or a Court order. The same is true for taking your minor child out of the state.

If divorce is unavoidable, be prepared, and good luck with your new single life as you leave the marriage zone!



Chris Meyer is an attorney practicing family law in Monument. Chris has been practicing law since 1977. He is a former prosecutor and is licensed to practice law in Colorado, Florida, California and Wisconsin. Chris can be contacted at 719-488-9395. Chris’s website (www.cmeyerlaw.com) has additional divorce and family law information.

CommonLaw Marriage

THE MARRIAGE ZONE: COMMON LAW MARRIAGE

By Christopher C. Meyer  May 2008


Are you married, or are you just living together? In Colorado you can be married without ever participating in a marriage ceremony. Colorado is one of a minority of states that recognizes common law marriage.

What is “common law marriage”? A common law marriage requires no ceremony or license. The other type of marriage is a “ceremonial marriage” and requires a license and a solemnization or ceremony. A common law marriage requires only that the couple cohabit, believe that they are married, and hold themselves out to the community as being married. The third requirement involves things like introducing yourselves to others as being married, listings as Mr. and Mrs. with the Post Office, filing taxes as married and so on.

“Common Law” refers to court decisions rather than “statute law” that is created by legislative bodies. In Colorado “common law” also refers to the common law of England (including some English statutes) existing prior to the year 1688. As provided by the Colorado Constitution, this English common law is also the law in Colorado, unless it has been changed by the Colorado Legislature. Since common law marriage was recognized in England prior to 1688, it is recognized in Colorado. The Colorado Legislature could eliminate common law marriage, but has chosen not to. It is interesting to note that the total estimated population of the American colonies in 1680 was 151,507 people, a little more than the total population of Lakewood Colorado in the year 2000. Things were a lot different in 1688 than they are now.

Whether a Court will decide that you have a common law marriage will depend on the specific facts of your situation. It is unlikely that any one particular fact will be determinative. A Court will base its decision on all the facts. Listing your significant other as your spouse for insurance benefits or for tax purposes can be significant. But if the couple don’t consider themselves to be married and don’t hold themselves out to the community as being married, it is unlikely that a Court will decide they have a common law marriage. However, saying you are married in order to get health insurance coverage from your significant other or in order to save money on your taxes can lead to major credibility problems with a Judge when you later try to explain that you didn’t really mean that you were married. Needless to say, this can also lead to fraud problems with insurers and the tax authorities.

If you have a common law marriage, the legal ramifications are the same as a ceremonial marriage. The laws pertaining to divorce, support, child custody, property division, and bigamy are the same for common law marriages as they are for ceremonial marriages. There is no “common law divorce”. If you have a common law marriage and you want a divorce, you have to get it done the same way as the folks who have a ceremonial marriage.

The law pertaining to common law marriage is the same as other law. You must remember that: you may not understand it; you may not like it; and you may not think its fair; but it’s the law!




This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice about your case.

Chris Meyer is an attorney practicing family law in Monument. Chris has been practicing law since 1977. He is a former prosecutor and is licensed to practice law in Colorado, Florida, California and Wisconsin. Chris can be contacted at 719-488-9395. Chris’s website (www.cmeyerlaw.com) has additional divorce and family law information.

No-Fault Divorce

Did you know that Colorado is a “no-fault” divorce state? All this means is that, in order to get a divorce in Colorado, you do not have to prove that anyone was at fault or that anyone did anything to damage the marriage. To get the divorce, one spouse has to be able to say that the marriage is “irretrievably broken”. There are three reasons for having no-fault divorce: to promote the amicable settlement of disputes that have arisen between the parties to a marriage; to lessen the potential harm to the spouses and their children that can be caused by the legal system in obtaining the divorce; and streamline the legal system for dealing with the realities of marriage and obtaining a divorce.

Because Colorado is a no-fault divorce state, it does not mean that fault does not have any role to play in a divorce case. For example, a couple may wind up getting a divorce because of the infidelity of one of the spouses. That spouse’s infidelity is not going to impact the proceeding in a no-fault jurisdiction like Colorado. However, if the unfaithful spouse had the bad taste and judgement to spend marital funds in the pursuit of his/her extramarital affair, such funds would have to be accounted for in the divorce case. This means that the unfaithful spouse would have to pay for expenditures out of his/her share of the proceeds of the marriage.

Another example of bad behavior (fault) that can play a role in a divorce case is domestic violence. Domestic violence will be taken into account with regard to matters such as child custody that involves the fitness of the parent. So keep in mind that “no-fault” in the marriage zone simplifies the process of getting a divorce. It does not mean that bad behavior will have no impact on the case. As a purely practical matter, a divorced person should be able to view exactly where the fault was that caused the demise of his/her marriage.

The Marriage Zone: Mediation

Mediation plays an important role in most family law cases. If you and your spouse cannot agree on all the issues in your case, the court will require that you attend a mediation before you can have the court decide the issues in your case after a hearing. It is important to know what mediation is and what it can do for you.

Mediation is a process involving an objected third-party who attempts to help the parties reach a voluntary resolution of their issues. The mediator’s only agenda is to try to settle the case. Mediation is not arbitration. Arbitration is a process that involves an objective third-party who actually decides the issues between the parties.

It must be emphasized that mediation is a voluntary process. While the court may order you to attend a mediation, it is up to you whether or not you are willing to reach a settlement or partial settlement at the mediation. Mediation works. This is why the courts require it before they are willing to hear your case. You may wonder why a mediator is ever required if both parties are represented by attorneys. The mediator can still be invaluable in providing a different perspective. Sometimes, a party needs to hear the hard facts from someone other that his/her attorney. There is also a hybrid process called mediation/arbitration (med/arb). A med/arb starts out exactly like a mediation. However, if the parties can’t reach a complete settlement as to all their issues at the end of the mediation, the mediator switches gears and becomes an arbitrator and makes a decision as to any remaining issues. The med/arb model is becoming more popular. A med/arb will typically involve significantly less litigation costs than a regular hearing before a judge.

In the “Marriage Zone”, mediation is your friend. In a family law case, both parties are usually more satisfied with a settlement that they have mutually arrived at compared with a ruling imposed by a court.

Divorce in Colorado -How Long Does It Take?

When I speak to someone for the first time who is interested in getting a divorce or a legal separation, one of the first questions they ask is: How long will it take? The theoretical shortest amount of time it will take to get your divorce or legal separation is 91 days from the time your case is filed with the Court. Colorado Legislature has passed a law that requires the judges to wait 90 days after the case is filed before they can issue your divorce decree or decree of legal separation. There are no exceptions to this rule. There is no way around this rule. It is human nature that after someone makes the difficult decision that he or she wants to get a divorce or a legal separation, he or she then wants the desired results to occur as soon as possible.

I do not know the exact reason for the 90 day waiting period. However, I can speculate that the Legislature felt it was wise to provide a waiting period to prevent people from making hasty decisions regarding such serious arrangements as a marriage.

How long your case will take depends upon you and your spouse. If you and your spouse cooperate and agree as to all the financial and parenting aspects of the case, your case may only take 91 days until the decree is entered. The more assets and debt that you have and the more complicated your financial arrangements are, the likelihood is that your case will take longer to resolve, because assembling all the information and getting all the expert input is likely to take longer than 90 days.

It is important to remember that anything that you and your spouse don’t agree on, the judge will ultimately have to decide at a hearing. Judges are very busy, and getting time for a hearing will usually place you well past the 90 day waiting period. Absent unusual circumstances, your divorce or legal separation, however complicated, should not take more than a year to complete.

If you want your case completed as soon as possible after the 90 day waiting period has expired, you need to be organized, and be willing to cooperate with the other party. It's the Law - there is just no getting around the 90 day waiting period.

Anatomy of a Divorce Case 2

This article continues the overview of a typical divorce case. The case has been filed, and the respondent has been served with the summons and a copy of the petition. A response to the petition has been filed, and an initial status conference has been held.

The parties have 40 days after the filing of the petition to prepare and exchange financial information such as financial affidavits, pay stubs, and tax returns.

The parties may request a temporary orders hearing. Temporary orders may be necessary if the parties cannot agree on how to handle matters pending the resolution (final orders) of the case. The Court may require the parties to try to settle their temporary differences before it will grant a temporary orders hearing. Most cases do not require a temporary orders hearing.

If the parties are in total agreement on all matters, the case can now proceed to final orders. However, the Court must wait 90 days from the filing of the petition and service on the respondent before it can issue final orders.

If the parties are not in total agreement, the Court will require the parties to mediate their dispute before the Court will hold a trial to settle any differences. Mediation is a process where a trained third party attempts to help the parties settle their differences. It is a voluntary process. The mediator does not make decisions for the parties. The parties make their own decisions.

Most cases settle. The parties reach an agreement on all the issues. Whatever the parties cannot agree on, the Court will decide at the trial (the final orders hearing). The final orders hearing is held by the Court without a jury. However, all the rules of court regarding trials apply (rules of evidence, etc.).

Before the Court will issue the final orders, whether the parties have settled or a trial was held, the parties must have filed financial affidavits and a certificate stating that the parties have provided mandatory disclosure of their finances. If children are involved, the parties must have attended the parenting class and provided the court with a proposed parenting plan.

The procedure you must follow to get a divorce is the same as other law. You must remember that: you may not understand the law; you may not like it; and you may not think its fair; but it’s the law!

Anatomy of a Divorce Case I

This article presents an overview of the structure of a typical divorce case in Colorado. It provides a general summary of the different steps involved in the Court process. Your case may be different depending on various factors such as whether the parties are represented by lawyers.

A divorce case is a lawsuit similar to other lawsuits such as negligence arising from an automobile crash injury. However, instead of a plaintiff and a defendant, there is a petitioner and a respondent; and, instead of a complaint, there is a petition. The petition requests that the court enter an order, a decree, for divorce. The respondent files a response to the petition. The petitioner must be a resident of Colorado for not less than 90 days preceding the filing of the petition.

Once the petition is filed with the court, the court has jurisdiction (power) over the petitioner. Once the petition and a summons are served on the respondent, the court has jurisdiction over the respondent. The respondent can be served in three ways. The most common are personal service by a process server – a deputy or other process serve gives a copy of the summons and the petition, or the respondent signs a waiver and acceptance of service. If the respondent can’t be located, service by publication is the alternative.

Once the petition has been filed and the respondent has been served, the court cannot divorce you until a minimum of 90 days have passed. One the petition is filed and the respondent is served, an automatic injunction goes into effect that prevents the parties from doing things like taking the children out of state without the consent of the other party or an order of the court. The automatic injunction also prevents doing other things without the other party’s consent like transferring marital property or canceling health, auto, or life insurance.

So, your case has been filed and the other party has been served with the paperwork. You now have a court case. The next step is an initial status conference. The purpose of the initial status conference is for the court to take an active role in managing the case. Think of the initial status conference as the first hearing in your case. The Court will enter an order regarding things like future scheduling and the exchange of financial information between the parties.

The exchange of financial information between the parties is critical to the whole process. The law provides for mandatory disclosure. The idea is that the parties and the court can make the best decisions only if they have complete and accurate financial information. Don’t even think about withholding relevant financial information. If you are dishonest, your credibility will be lost and you may be subject to other sanctions.