20th Jul 25 7:52 am
JamieColorado has a thriving craft beer industry and made recreational marijuana legal in 2012, which means there is temptation all around for those who are susceptible. Gambling is now at your fingertips, with websites and apps you can use on your phone during lunch or bathroom breaks. Whether it is alcohol, drugs, gambling, sex, or something else, addiction has a significant emotional and financial toll for many families. When you reach your breaking point and decide to file for divorce, you may be surprised to realize that your spouse has used many of the marital assets to support their dependency. Fortunately, you may be able to reclaim some of the lost marital estate by asking for a larger share of assets in divorce. At Colorado Divorce Law Group, our experienced divorce attorneys may be able to explain Colorado divorce laws and help you understand how your spouse’s substance abuse or gambling problem impacts your divorce case. Call (720) 593-6442 to schedule a consultation to review the details of your case.
Per C.R.S. § 14-10-106, Colorado is a no-fault divorce state. No fault means that the spouses do not need to identify or prove a particular wrongdoing or misconduct as the cause of the divorce. Instead, one or both spouses only need to indicate the marriage is “irretrievably broken.” Irretrievably broken simply means that one or both spouses do not believe that there is any way they can salvage or repair the marriage and that the marriage is over.
While Colorado does not use addiction as grounds for divorce, this does not mean that a spouse’s substance abuse is completely irrelevant. In fact, a spouse’s alcohol, drug, or gambling addiction can impact several aspects of divorce, including child custody and visitation rights, child support, spousal maintenance, and the division of marital assets. The division of marital assets in divorce also includes the division of debts, including those that were accrued due to the spouse’s addiction.
Under C.R.S. § 14-10-113, Colorado is an equitable distribution state and the court does not consider marital misconduct when dividing assets in divorce. Equitable distribution means the division should be fair but not necessarily equal. The lack of consideration of marital misconduct means that the court will not provide a non-cheating spouse with more of the assets in divorce because the other spouse cheated. However, while marital misconduct is not considered, economic fault or dissipation of marital assets is considered, and addiction may be in that category in some circumstances.
Economic fault is a term for when one spouse engages in behaviors that harm the couple’s financial estate. Dissipation of assets, and several other actions, fit under the umbrella of economic fault. When an individual struggles with addiction, they may engage in one or more of these actions. When they have, it may impact the division of assets in divorce.
Dissipation of marital assets, or reckless spending, occurs when one spouse uses marital funds in a wasteful manner that does not benefit the couple or their family. Sometimes, an individual will do this when they are about to separate from their spouse, in an attempt to reduce the assets to be divided or to “punish” their spouse. However, when one spouse has a drug or alcohol addiction, they may use marital funds to support their addiction. This does not just include taking money from joint accounts. This can also include selling assets to use the cash, taking out loans against assets, or trading tangible assets such as jewelry for the substance they are addicted to. If it can be proven that the addicted spouse engaged in these kinds of behaviors, the court may consider it to be dissipation of marital assets and may award a larger portion of the remaining assets in divorce to the other spouse.
The Gateway Foundation indicates that addiction costs $49 billion in missed work days each year. Individuals with substance abuse issues may use sick days to engage in their addiction and recover from its effects, then take more time off when they are truly ill. They may show up late several times per month or week, or be unable to do their job because they are hungover or suffering withdrawal symptoms. These things can stop the individual from advancing in their career or make maintaining employment difficult or impossible. Missed days result in lost income. Difficulty maintaining employment or being stalled in their career can mean missed raises, bonuses, and other financial benefits that the individual’s family could have benefited from. If the sober spouse can prove that they were financially disadvantaged by their spouse’s addiction and their reduced earning capacity, the sober spouse may receive a larger share of the marital assets in divorce.
Addiction is expensive, with alcoholics spending as little as $3,000 per year on alcohol and cocaine or heroin addicts spending $10,000 or more on their chosen drug, according to DebtWave. Someone with a gambling addiction can completely destroy their own finances, as well as those of family or friends who are unfortunate enough to get too close. In order to fund these addictions, many individuals will let household bills and other debts go unpaid. They may also take out loans against the family home, vehicles, or other property. These can all add up to significant amounts of debt.
In a typical equitable distribution of assets in divorce, debts are also split equitably between the spouses. This is because debts are typically accrued by both spouses or at least with the knowledge of both spouses. With addiction, the debts accrued are often secret, with the individual going to great lengths to avoid their sober spouse finding out about them. If the addicted spouse created significant debt as a result of their addiction, those debts may be assigned to them rather than split with the sober spouse who did not contribute to the debt.
If the couple owns a business and one spouse’s addiction has had a negative impact on the value of the business or its operations, causing it to lose significant value, this may factor into the overall division of assets in divorce. Many factors can affect a business’s value, including the overall economy and the industry the business is in. Spouses may need to hire forensic accountants and other experts to review the business’s financial and other records and prove that the addiction is the reason the business lost value.
The court may also need to consider the future financial needs of each spouse. This can include uninsured medical expenses for any special needs children the couple shares, retirement or other plans to stop working, and may also include any potential ongoing treatment costs for addiction. These issues can significantly complicate the division of assets in divorce as well as spousal maintenance. Individuals may want to consult with a divorce attorney at Colorado Divorce Law Group to learn how the specific circumstances of their case will impact property distribution.
In some circumstances, addiction can create significant safety issues. The addicted individual may engage in domestic violence against their partner, or they may endanger the family by inviting dangerous people to the family home or taking family members with them when they engage in their addiction. If the addiction led to domestic violence or other safety concerns, this may influence who keeps the family home or other shared property.
C.R.S. § 14-10-114 explains Colorado’s spousal maintenance, or alimony, rules. Couples must have been married for at least three years, and maintenance is then ordered for an amount and a period of time based on specific calculations and factors the court considers. However, if the addicted spouse harmed the couple’s finances severely enough, the sober spouse may be awarded more spousal maintenance.
While it is extremely uncommon, there is another way addiction may impact spousal maintenance. In those cases, the sober spouse may be required to pay spousal maintenance to the addicted spouse. This rare circumstance happens most often when the addiction has caused or triggered a mental illness that requires the addicted individual to be institutionalized. The sober spouse may be ordered by the court to cover any treatment costs not covered by disability benefits.
When proving that addiction impacted the family finances in an effort to get more marital assets in divorce, safety must be the first priority. Sober spouses should not do anything that would endanger themselves or their children. However, there are a few things they can do to gather evidence showing that their spouse’s substance abuse negatively affected the couple’s finances.
Documenting the addiction itself is the first step to proving the financial toll it has taken on the family. The sober spouse must show that their spouse is addicted. This will require documenting the addiction in any way possible. This documentation can include a detailed record of dates and times when the spouse engaged in their addiction, names and contact information of any witnesses, and statements from any witnesses describing what they saw.
Additionally, spouses may want to include details regarding any signs they noted of their spouse’s active engagement in their addiction or indications of withdrawal. If their spouse went to rehabilitation centers, detoxification facilities, support group meetings (such as Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, or Gamblers Anonymous), or other evidence of trying to quit, this can also be used to prove the addiction. Medical records such as toxicology test results, notes from healthcare providers regarding symptoms of addiction they noted, and hospitalization records from overdoses can also be useful, as can employment records indicating failed drug tests or termination due to addiction.
Once an individual has collected proof of the addiction, the next step is proof of the financial costs. Depending on the addicted spouse’s specific addiction, this may be easier or more difficult. A gambling addiction, or abuse of alcohol or prescribed drugs, may be easier to prove as they may have more traceable records, such as bank or credit card statements showing transactions for a gambling website or at a liquor store or pharmacy. These types of addictions may also have receipts from these purchases.
If the addicted spouse uses illegal drugs or has taken additional steps to hide their addiction, the sober spouse may have to dig deeper for evidence. They may need to look at bank statements for unusual withdrawals, such as large cash withdrawals that do not correspond to any purchases or debts the sober spouse knows about. They can also look for evidence of lost income due to the addiction, such as paychecks that are smaller than usual. Assets, such as jewelry, electronics, sporting goods, power tools, musical instruments, antiques, collectibles, or brand name clothing or accessories that disappear may also be evidence of the financial cost.
Consulting with a family law or divorce attorney who is familiar with Colorado’s laws and experienced with how addiction can impact marriage and divorce can offer many benefits. They may be able to advise individuals about additional steps they can take to prove the addiction or the impact it has had on the family’s finances. They may also be able to assist the individual with any safety concerns arising from the addiction. They may also be able to discuss possible outcomes regarding the division of assets in divorce.
In determining how to divide assets in divorce, the court does not just split everything in half and give one half to each spouse. At the same time, addiction is not the only factor that can impact how the assets are divided. There are several other factors that the court will weigh when deciding how to distribute the assets between the spouses.
Each spouse’s financial and non-financial contributions to the marriage are considered. Financial contributions include things such as income, retirement accounts, investment accounts, benefits such as workers’ compensation or disability, businesses one or both spouses started, and any other monetary contributions that the spouse made that benefited the couple or family. Non-financial contributions include things such as home cleaning and maintenance, childcare, cooking, emotional support, and supporting each other’s careers.
Divorce dramatically changes the circumstances of each spouse economically. From being part of a two-income household or being a stay-at-home parent who relied on their spouse’s income, each spouse is now responsible for their own income and using that single income to provide for an entire household alone. The court will consider these circumstances for each spouse and award assets in divorce accordingly.
As the court begins dividing assets in divorce, they must keep an equitable distribution in mind. Equitable means fair, but it does not have to mean equal. In some cases, an equitable distribution may be equal or very close to it. However, in most cases, an equitable distribution will not be equal and the court will need to be aware of the value of the property each spouse has already received and the overall value they intend each spouse to receive. As they begin to distribute the remaining marital assets, they may need to shift assets around to keep the distribution equitable.
Most people enter a marriage with at least a few assets that they already own, such as a motor vehicle, jewelry, home furnishings, and perhaps a home, while others have a significant number of assets before marriage. These assets are referred to as separate property. Separate property is the assets an individual owns that do not belong to their spouse, and in a divorce, these assets are automatically assigned to the spouse who owned them prior to marriage unless they were otherwise turned into marital assets. However, like marital assets, separate property may have increased or decreased in value during the marriage, and this new value must be considered when determining how to divide assets in divorce. While separate property is not divisible, if one spouse has significantly more valuable separate property than the other, the marital assets may be divided to provide the other spouse with more so that both spouses are on a more even footing financially.
Whether it is a substance like alcohol or drugs, or the feeling they are chasing with gambling or sex, addiction can have a brutal impact on family finances. You may not be aware of the full extent of the damage until you decide to divorce, if you are aware of the problem at all. Whether you were surprised to learn of the problem just before you decided to divorce, suspected it for a long time, or knew all along, the financial chaos your addicted spouse created now requires you to deal with the debt and misused assets in divorce. An experienced Colorado divorce attorney may be able to assist you in finding the evidence you need to prove the financial trouble your spouse’s dependency caused, drawing up a settlement agreement to divide assets if you and your spouse are able to agree, or represent you in court to get an equitable property distribution that takes into account the assets your spouse squandered. Call (720) 593-6442 to schedule a consultation with Colorado Divorce Law Group and review your case.
