Denver, CO Divorce Attorney Office

Denver does not have a specific residency requirement, but it is subject to a 90-day state of Colorado residency requirement.

The mandatory waiting period is 90 days. Colorado rules do not allow any activity on the case to take place, other than the exchanging of financial information and the Initial Status Conference, for the first 40 days after the Petition is filed. It would probably take a minimum of 2-5 months to get even the least complex divorces finalized and at least 6-12 months to finalize complex divorces. Some cases take well over a year if there are contested child custody issues, substantial amounts of property to divide, and other such issues.

You would serve your spouse by utilizing a private process server or a sheriff/constable. You can serve by publication by filing a motion with the court that meets certain requirements, including attaching affidavits or other evidence to substantiate what efforts you made to personally serve your spouse and obtaining a court order to allow you to serve the other party by publication. In the Denver area, the notice would typically be published in the Denver Post because it’s a national publication that would (theoretically) provide notice to persons both in and outside of the state of Colorado.

In Denver County, you have to file a Petition for Dissolution of Marriage, a Case Information Sheet, and a Summons to begin a divorce action and you have to serve all of them on the other party. However, there may be additional documents you would have to serve in the outlying counties other than Denver County, which vary by the different Judicial Districts in which those different counties lie.

All divorce cases have to be filed with the Office of the District Clerk in whichever Judicial District the county of residence lies, which will then assign the case to a particular division of the District Court in that county (assuming that county has more than one division). However, many counties, such as Denver, now require that all documents be e-filed in all divisions rather than physically being paper-filed with the Clerk’s Office (though most counties give pro se litigants some leeway on this, at least as to the initial filing). The city of Denver lies primarily in Denver County, but also extends to several nearby counties, such as Adams, Broomfield, Arapahoe, Douglas, and Elbert counties. For Denver County, you need to file at the courthouse located 1437 Bannock Street in Denver. For the outlying counties in the city of Denver, go to whichever District Court of the Judicial District in which your county of residence lies. Visit the Colorado Courts by District website to learn which Judicial District you reside in and where you should file your divorce papers.