An uncontested divorce in Colorado is one in which you and your spouse agree on every issue, including property, debts, maintenance, and parenting, and it is usually the most efficient and least adversarial way to end a marriage. Agreement does not waive Colorado’s requirements, though. Many problems come from treating the process as a shortcut: skipping full financial disclosure, planning around a decree before the 91-day waiting period ends, or signing a separation agreement too vague to enforce.
Even when you and your spouse are on the same page, ending a marriage is a significant decision, and the goal of keeping things calm, affordable, and private is worth protecting. Many Colorado couples work with a firm like Johnson Law Group to draft or review their agreement before it goes to the court, because whatever the court approves becomes the order you will live with. Knowing where uncontested cases tend to go off track gives you a clearer roadmap from filing to decree.
Mistake 1: Assuming Agreement Means No Financial Disclosure
Colorado requires you and your spouse to exchange mandatory financial disclosures, including a sworn financial statement, within 42 days after the petition is served, even when you agree on everything (C.R.C.P. 16.2(e)). Under a 2024 rule change, you can agree in writing to limit the exchange to sworn financial statements by filing an affidavit waiving the supporting documents. Either of you can withdraw that consent, however, and the court can still decide that limited disclosure is not appropriate.
Disclosure is also what protects your agreement later. If a disclosure omits or misstates a material asset or debt that affects the property division, the court keeps jurisdiction for five years after the decree to allocate it (C.R.C.P. 16.2(e)(10)). Complete, honest disclosure is what allows both of you to make well-informed decisions and rely on the result.
Mistake 2: Planning Around a Decree Before 91 Days
A Colorado court cannot enter your decree until at least 91 days after it acquires jurisdiction over the responding spouse, which happens through service of the petition or when you file together as co-petitioners (C.R.S. § 14-10-106). The waiting period applies no matter how complete your agreement is, so timing a move, a refinance, or a new lease around an earlier date can create problems. At least one of you must also have been domiciled in Colorado, meaning Colorado is your permanent home, for 91 days before filing.
Mistake 3: Misunderstanding When You Can Skip Court
Colorado lets you finalize a divorce on sworn affidavits instead of a court appearance, but only in certain cases. There must be no minor children and no pregnancy, or, if you have children, both of you must be represented by an attorney or a licensed legal paraprofessional and have a separation agreement covering parental responsibilities and child support. Your case also needs proper service, no genuine dispute over material facts, and either no marital property or a written agreement dividing it (C.R.S. § 14-10-120.3).
Even when you qualify, the court is not required to enter a decree on the affidavits and can set a hearing on its own, and filing the affidavit does not shorten the 91-day waiting period. If you file the affidavit with all required documents before the initial status conference, though, you are excused from attending that conference (C.R.C.P. 16.2(c)(1)(D)), so completing your paperwork early can save you a trip to court.
Mistake 4: Writing a Vague Separation Agreement
Once your separation agreement is before the court, its terms on property and maintenance are binding on the court unless the court finds the agreement unconscionable, meaning so one-sided that the court will not approve it (C.R.S. § 14-10-112). Vague language about who refinances the house, how a retirement account is divided, or when maintenance ends can lead to enforcement disputes after the decree.
Some terms are also difficult or impossible to undo. If your separation agreement says so, the decree can preclude or limit future modification of maintenance, which can make a waiver or a fixed term permanent (C.R.S. § 14-10-112(6)). Property division provisions generally cannot be modified unless conditions exist that would justify reopening a judgment (C.R.S. § 14-10-122). Read every term as if it will never change, because some of them will not.
Mistake 5: Treating the Parenting Plan as a Formality
Agreements about your children work differently from agreements about property. Terms covering parental responsibilities (Colorado’s term for what most people call custody), parenting time, and child support are not binding on the court the way property terms are (C.R.S. § 14-10-112), and the court reviews your parenting plan against your children’s best interests before approving it. A plan that leaves out holidays, school breaks, transportation, or how you will resolve disagreements can resurface as a dispute after the decree, when the two of you are no longer working toward a shared deadline.
Keeping Your Uncontested Divorce on Track
The common thread in each of these mistakes is assuming that agreement replaces process. It does not. An uncontested divorce still runs on Colorado’s statutory timeline, still requires honest financial disclosure, and still produces orders that are hard to change once entered. When you complete disclosures early, draft precise terms, and plan around the 91-day minimum, you give your case the best chance of finishing on the first submission and give yourself the stability to move forward.
If you and your spouse have reached an agreement, Johnson Law Group can be your North Star through the rest of the process, reviewing your separation agreement and parenting plan, helping you complete your disclosures, and making sure you know what to expect at each step. Schedule a no-pressure consultation to talk through your agreement and your next chapter.
