A Colorado divorce asks the maintenance question twice. The first time, weeks or months after filing, the question is narrow: how do two households pay their bills between now and the decree? The second time, at permanent orders, the question is how much support is fair for the years after the marriage ends. Both answers come from C.R.S. § 14-10-114, but from different subsections, on different evidence, and they are frequently different numbers.
The statute says a temporary award "does not prejudice the rights of either party at permanent orders." That is true as law and misleading as practice. The temporary number shapes the final one, and the retroactivity and credit rules can move real money in either direction.
What Temporary Maintenance Is For
Either spouse may move for temporary maintenance under C.R.S. § 14-10-108 as soon as the case is filed, supported by an affidavit and the Sworn Financial Statement. Subsection (4) of the maintenance statute governs the motion: the court may award a monthly amount "pursuant to the provisions of subsection (3) that are relevant to a determination of temporary maintenance," and must also consider "any additional factors specific to the determination of temporary maintenance, including the payment of family expenses and debts." The guideline term table does not apply; the court sets the term, and the order runs until the decree unless continued for good cause.
The Court of Appeals described the purpose in In re Marriage of Herold (2021): to place the parties on equal footing during the divorce process. That is a cash-flow exercise. The judge is deciding who pays the mortgage on the house one spouse still occupies, who carries the children's health insurance, and whether the joint credit card gets paid, and subsection (4)(b) has the court allocate marital debt and the temporary use of property only after setting temporary maintenance and child support.
The threshold still applies. Under In re Marriage of Rose (Colo. App. 2006) and In re Marriage of Thornhill (Colo. 2010), the requesting spouse must show a need measured against the marital standard of living before any temporary award enters. Where both spouses earn six figures, that showing can fail at temporary orders just as it can at the end.
How the Guideline Works at Temporary Orders
The advisory formula is one of the "relevant provisions" of subsection (3), and most temporary orders hearings start with it. For combined income at or below $240,000, the guideline amount is 40 percent of combined monthly adjusted gross income minus the lower earner's income, reduced to 80 or 75 percent because maintenance under post-2018 instruments is neither deductible nor taxable. A husband earning $16,000 a month and a wife earning $4,000: 40 percent of $20,000 is $8,000, less $4,000 is $4,000, times 75 percent is $3,000 a month.
That number is a starting point, not an answer. If the husband is also paying the $3,500 mortgage on the house the wife occupies, the court can treat that payment as part of the support picture under subsection (4)(a)(III) rather than stacking $3,000 on top of it. The child support worksheet then picks up whatever maintenance figure the court sets, because maintenance received is income to one side and maintenance paid adjusts the other.
Temporary orders hearings are short, often an hour or two, with limited testimony and the Sworn Financial Statements doing most of the talking. Nobody has valued the business, no vocational expert has testified, and the judge is working from two pay stubs. The temporary number often favors the side with cleaner paperwork.
Why the Numbers Change at Permanent Orders
By permanent orders, three things are different. First, the property has been divided. Since In re Marriage of Jones (Colo. 1981), maintenance can be determined only after the marital estate is allocated, and the statutory threshold expressly counts "marital property apportioned" to the requesting spouse. A wife living on $3,000 a month of temporary maintenance in March may be holding $400,000 in liquid assets by November, and her need looks different.
Second, the evidence is different. A permanent orders hearing runs a day or more, with expert testimony on business income, imputed earning capacity, and the marital standard of living. Bonuses unknown at temporary orders have been paid, and a spouse who was "looking for work" has either found it or has been evaluated by a vocational expert who says what he could earn. The court must make written or oral findings on gross income, property apportioned, financial resources, reasonable need as established during the marriage, and the statutory factors it relies on.
Third, the guideline term now applies. The same couple with a ten-year marriage has 120 months of marriage and a guideline term of 54 months, and the court has to decide not just how much but for how long, and whether to step the amount down, reserve jurisdiction for a future event, or end it. Colorado appellate courts have affirmed permanent awards lower than the temporary ones, in MacReynolds and Sharp, where the final hearing showed changed circumstances.
How the Temporary Award Shapes the Final One
Subsection (4)(c) says the temporary award does not prejudice either party. Subsection (3)(c)(VIII) then lists, among the factors the court must consider at permanent orders, "the amount of temporary maintenance and the number of months that temporary maintenance was paid." Both are true. The temporary award is not binding, but it is evidence, and the months already paid count toward the term the court is measuring.
Three practical effects follow:
- A large temporary award paid for eighteen months will shorten or reduce the permanent award in many courtrooms, because the payor has already carried the other household for a year and a half.
- A recipient who agreed to a low temporary number and made it work has a harder time proving need at the final hearing. Judges notice what happened.
- The temporary order can be modified before the decree, but only on the showing of changed circumstances that governs post-decree modification under C.R.S. § 14-10-108(5)(b). Regretting a stipulated number is not a change in circumstances.
Treat the temporary orders hearing as the first day of trial. The Sworn Financial Statement filed for it will be an exhibit at permanent orders, and inconsistencies between the two are the cheapest cross-examination in family law.
Retroactivity, Credits, and Arrears
The court has broad discretion over the start date. Before 2014 the statute fixed the start date at separation, filing, or service, whichever came last. The current statute simply says the court "shall determine the term," and in In re Marriage of Stradtmann (2021) the Court of Appeals held that a district court may award temporary maintenance retroactive to a date before it even acquired jurisdiction over the parties. A spouse cut off from the accounts in January who could not get a hearing until June can ask for the months in between.
Retroactive awards come with credits. In In re Marriage of Callison (2021), the Court of Appeals sent back a $12,000-a-month retroactive award because the trial court had made no findings on the wife's actual needs and had not accounted for the husband's undisputed payment of the mortgage, utilities, and other shared expenses during that period. A payor who covered the household voluntarily should document every payment and claim the credit.
Unpaid temporary maintenance is a judgment. The Colorado Supreme Court held in In re Marriage of Nussbeck (1999) that a court retains jurisdiction to enforce temporary support orders after the decree and may impose contempt sanctions even after the arrears are reduced to judgment. And because maintenance under a post-2018 order is neither deductible nor taxable, there is no tax reason to characterize a payment one way or the other; the only question is whether it was paid.
Talk to a Denver Divorce Attorney About Temporary Maintenance
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 temporary orders hearing comes early, on a compressed record, and its number follows the case to the end, so the financial statement deserves real attention before filing. A first meeting is a paid consultation, not a free call and not a sales pitch.
Read the full guides on DenverDivorce.com: Spousal Maintenance in Colorado and Maintenance Defense in Colorado.
Educational information only, not legal advice. Reading this article does not create an attorney-client relationship.
