Cruelty is Relevant in the Colorado Process
How Cruelty Can Affect Property Division in Colorado Law? In an ideal situation, all marriages would be devoid of any sort of petty or cruel behavior. Unfortunately, the ideal situation isn’t what we have, and sadly a lot of marriages involve cruel behaviors of one form or another. Like many other states across this country, Colorado is a “no fault” state, which means spouses aren’t required to cite a particular wrong in order to file for and obtain a dissolution. However, although citing a wrong isn’t a formal requirement of divorce, wrongs committed in the context of marriage are still relevant in the divorce process. One way this relevancy manifests is in the property division phase of divorce.
Cruelty is Not Just Physical or Emotional
When we think of “cruelty,” we tend to think of a common set of behaviors. We usually think of physical abuse – hitting, pushing, grabbing, and so forth. Or, we think of psycho-emotional abuse, which can take the form of verbal put-downs, gaslighting, manipulation, and various other unpleasant behaviors. Certainly, these types of physical and psycho-emotional abuse are undoubtedly examples of cruelty, and will be taken into consideration when spouses go through the divorce process. But, physical and psycho-emotional abuse aren’t the only kinds of cruelty which can happen. There is also financial abuse, which occurs when one spouse forbids the other spouse to hold a job, demands financial resources for no reason, squanders marital funds on frivolous purposes (including foolish investments), uses marital funds on extramarital affairs, and so forth. Make no mistake, financial abuse is also a very powerful form of cruelty, and it also have significance in the context of divorce and specifically in the context of property division.
Cruelty Can Lead to Uneven Distribution of the Marital Estate
What happens when one spouse behaves in a cruel manner toward the other spouse? If the court finds that cruelty has in fact occurred, one potential remedy is to distribute the community estate in an uneven manner. This may be difficult for some laypeople to believe, but it is true nonetheless. Distributing the community estate unevenly is typically more common when financial abuse occurs, and this is partly because financial abuse is much easier to “quantify” or measure. If, for instance, one spouse demonstrates (with documentation or other hard proof) that the other spouse to hand over $50,000 from his or her separate property savings account several years prior to the divorce, the court may simply use this figure and adjust the property division accordingly. Physical and psycho-emotional abuse can also lead to an uneven property division, however, and so readers should be aware of this very important fact.
Gather Evidence to Substantiate Allegations of Cruelty
What advice can be given to victims of cruelty in marriage? Aside from obtaining assistance in the form of therapy or counseling, a good bit of advice is to substantiate incidents of abuse as best as possible. If spouses can provide concrete evidence, in the form of documentation, photographs, and so forth, this will be highly useful in the context of divorce, and especially in the context of property division. Courts will have a much easier time giving a victim the bulk of the community estate if the victim provides concrete evidence. If the cruelty has been of a financial variation, do your best to have documentation to support your allegations. Provide bank statements, credit card statements, tax returns, receipts, and other pieces of tangible proof.
Contact the Drake Law Firm for More Resources
If you would like to learn more about the property division phase of divorce, or about another aspect of the divorce process, contact one of the leading family law lawyers at the Drake Law Firm today by calling 720-679-8813.