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# How Long a Colorado Divorce Really Takes: A Month-by-Month Picture
- URL: https://blog.denverdivorce.com/how-long-divorce-takes-colorado/
- Published: 2026-09-29T14:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-29T14:00:00.000Z
- Description: Colorado's 91-day waiting period is a floor almost no one hits. Here is the Rule 16.2 timeline, realistic Denver-metro ranges for agreed and contested cases, what adds months, what shortens the case, and a month-by-month picture.
- Author: Aaron Herzberg
- Tags: Process

Colorado law says a divorce cannot be finished in fewer than 91 days. In the Denver metro, an agreed divorce with a complete separation agreement typically takes four to six months from filing to decree. A contested case with a business to value or a parenting dispute that needs an evaluator usually takes twelve to eighteen months, and a case with both can take longer.

The gap between the statute and reality is not court inefficiency. It is the work the rules require before a judge will sign anything: disclosures, valuations, mediation, and a hearing date on a calendar shared with every other family in the district.

## The 91-Day Floor and Why Almost No One Hits It

Under [C.R.S. § 14-10-106(1)(a)](https://law.justia.com/codes/colorado/title-14/dissolution-of-marriage-parental-responsibilities/article-10/section-14-10-106/?ref=blog.denverdivorce.com), the court may enter a decree only after 91 days have passed since it acquired jurisdiction over the respondent, which means the date of service, the signing of a waiver, or the filing of a joint petition, not the date the petition went in. Submitting the case on affidavits without a hearing does not shorten that period, C.R.S. § 14-10-120.3(3).

To use the 91st day, the parties must have a signed separation agreement, a parenting plan and child support worksheet if there are children, both Sworn Financial Statements on file, and a proposed decree. The judge then reviews the agreement for unconscionability and the parenting plan for the children's best interests, and review time varies by division. Couples who have already negotiated everything before filing do reach the decree in three to four months. Everyone else is on the Rule 16.2 schedule.

![The Denver City and County Building, home of the Denver District Court](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9c/7f/9c7f0f22-0ab1-4be3-88a9-68ce015e9524/content/images/2026/09/how-long-divorce-takes-colorado.jpg)

The Denver City and County Building, home of the Denver District Court. Photo: Carol M. Highsmith, Library of Congress (public domain).

## The C.R.C.P. 16.2 Timeline Every Case Follows

Rule 16.2 is the domestic relations case management rule, and its deadlines set the pace:

- The initial status conference must be held no later than 42 days after the petition is filed, unless both parties have counsel and file a stipulated case management plan instead.
- Mandatory financial disclosures, including the Sworn Financial Statement, are due 42 days after service, and by the status conference to the extent reasonably possible.
- Discovery beyond the mandatory disclosures, including pattern interrogatories and requests for production, opens after the status conference and must be completed 28 days before the hearing.
- Lay and expert witnesses must be disclosed 63 days before a contested hearing, with expert reports governed by C.R.C.P. 26(a)(2).
- The joint trial management certificate and exhibits are due seven days before the hearing.

Mediation, which nearly every metro district requires before a contested permanent orders hearing, has to fit between the disclosures and the hearing, and the permanent orders hearing itself is set at a status conference months in advance. Add those pieces up and the shortest realistic contested path from filing to hearing is about nine months.

## Typical Timelines in the Denver Metro

These ranges reflect what cases in the 1st, 2nd, 18th, 20th, and 23rd Judicial Districts commonly look like, not a promise about any court's calendar:

- Uncontested, everything agreed before or shortly after filing: four to six months, occasionally three.
- Mostly agreed, with a mediation needed to close two or three open issues: six to ten months.
- Contested finances with a business or professional practice to value: twelve to eighteen months.
- Contested parenting with a child and family investigator or parental responsibilities evaluator: twelve to eighteen months, driven by the evaluation timeline.
- Both contested, or a case with a marital agreement challenge tried first: eighteen months or more.

Multi-day hearings are the constraint. A judge who can offer a half-day next month may not have two consecutive days for six.

## What Actually Adds Months

Valuations. A business appraisal takes sixty to ninety days after the appraiser receives clean financials, and a spouse who produces them late pushes everything behind it. Real estate appraisals are fast; valuing executive compensation, carried interest, or a trust interest is not.

Custody evaluations. A CFI investigation commonly takes two to three months from appointment; a PRE, which involves psychological testing, often takes four to six. The court will not set the hearing until the report is in, and either party can then retain a rebuttal expert.

Court calendars. Permanent orders hearings are set on a district-wide docket, and a continuance under C.R.C.P. 121 § 1-11 is granted only for good cause. A hearing that goes off the calendar rarely comes back within a month.

A spouse who stalls. Late or incomplete disclosures lead to a motion to compel under C.R.C.P. 37(a), which requires a conferral certificate, a 21-day response window, and a ruling, and sanctions under Rule 16.2(j) come at the end of that road, not the beginning. Each cycle costs six to eight weeks. The court's tools are real, and fee awards for forcing disclosure are routine (*In re Marriage of Wright*, 2020), but they do not recover the time.

Late-failing mediation. A mediation held two weeks before the hearing that produces nothing means the trial goes forward with positions that hardened during the delay.

## What Shortens a Case

Agreement, obviously, and partial agreement counts. Stipulating to the values of the house and the retirement accounts, or to a joint expert for the business, removes the disputes that consume hearing time. A stipulated case management plan lets counsel vacate the status conference and set their own schedule.

Private processes. The parties can agree to arbitrate some or all issues, which trades the court's calendar for the arbitrator's; an agreement to arbitrate holds even when a legal separation petition is converted to dissolution (*In re Marriage of Popack*, 2000). The Chief Justice can also appoint a retired judge under C.R.S. § 13-3-111 to hear the case at the parties' expense, with the same authority and appeal rights as a sitting judge. A special master can be appointed for a discrete task like tracing accounts.

Early neutral evaluation and a settlement conference with a judicial officer, available in some districts with both parties' written consent, can settle a parenting case before anyone hires an evaluator.

## Bifurcation: Ending the Marriage Before the Money

Section 14-10-106(1)(b) lets the court enter the decree and defer the financial or parenting orders, but only on a finding that deferral is necessary in the parties' best interests. The Colorado Supreme Court in *In re Estate of Burford* (1997) required a compelling reason, such as a planned remarriage or a party's imminent death, and trial judges are reluctant. Bifurcation also freezes the valuation date, because property is valued as of the decree or the property hearing, whichever comes first, C.R.S. § 14-10-113(5), and temporary support continues until permanent orders are entered.

## A Realistic Month-by-Month Picture

For a contested case with a business and children, filed in the Denver metro:

- Month 0: petition filed and served; the automatic temporary injunction takes effect.
- Month 1 to 2: initial status conference; disclosures exchanged; mediation ordered; temporary orders hearing requested if support or parenting time is in dispute.
- Month 2 to 4: temporary orders hearing; CFI or PRE appointed; business appraiser retained; discovery served.
- Month 4 to 8: evaluation and appraisal in progress; depositions; the 91-day floor passes without anyone noticing.
- Month 8 to 10: reports received; witness and expert disclosures; mediation, where most cases end.
- Month 10 to 14: trial management certificate; permanent orders hearing; written ruling, which can take weeks after a multi-day hearing.
- Month 14 to 18: decree entered; QDROs, deeds, and buyout payments completed.

An agreed case runs the first two lines, then skips to the last.

## Talk to a Denver Divorce Attorney About Your Timeline

Aaron Herzberg is a divorce attorney in Greenwood Village, Colorado, serving Denver and the Front Range, with more than 30 years of trial experience and a practice focused on divorce, custody, and financially complex family law. The timeline is set in the first sixty days by how quickly disclosures go out and experts get retained, and a case that starts organized finishes months sooner. A first meeting is a paid consultation, not a free call and not a sales pitch.

Read the full guide on DenverDivorce.com: [Divorce in Colorado: The Process](https://denverdivorce.com/practice-areas/colorado-divorce.html?ref=blog.denverdivorce.com).

*Educational information only, not legal advice. Reading this article does not create an attorney-client relationship.*