Are you considering a divorce but you’re concerned about marital debt? Hi, I’m Marie Drake of The Drake Law Firm, and today, I’m going to talk to you about how Colorado law treats marital debt.
You might be wondering what is considered marital debt? Well, just like income, marital debt is any debt that occurs during the marriage. Although let’s also remember, Colorado is an equitable distribution state. So, equitable doesn’t always mean equal, and examples of marital debt could be a mortgage you take out together, or credit card debt you incur to furnish your new house, or medical debt, God forbid somebody’s sick, and there’s a big deductible, and that happens during the marriage, medical debt is marital.
What you should also know is that non-marital debt, an example would be debt incurred prior to the marriage that can include student loans, credit cards, even a mortgage on separate property. So, remember that it can also include debt that happens after a separation. A lot of times, if you’re running up a credit card after separation, before the divorce, the court will not consider that to be marital.
After a court determines what is marital debt and what is non-marital debt, the court can then decide who was assigned to what. Now remember, fault is not assigned to this. Once you file for divorce, if your husband is spending thousands of dollars to take his mistress to Europe, that could be considered dissipation of marital assets. But if he did that all through the marriage prior to the divorce, it’s going to be hard to assign fault to that. Or remember, courts generally are fair in their decisions, and they might assign him more of that debt. So, keep that in mind. The court will also look at the economic circumstances of each party. So, if one person is a renowned surgeon and the other person hasn’t worked in twenty years because she’s been raising seventeen children, then the court is probably going to give more of the debt to the renowned surgeon who’s making seven hundred thousand a year. So, keep that in mind. This is not black and white, and it’s not just simply a decision by the court like this. They have to be investigated, so do you.
Debt during a divorce can be especially stressful. If you’re still watching this video, you’re probably stressed about marital debt. If you are, give us a call here at The Drake Law Firm. We’ll help you figure it out and we’ll help you find a path forward for a solution in your divorce.
