Although Colorado is a "no fault" divorce state,
attorneys can subpoena all the records related to alleged use of marital
funds for non marital purposes, and the courts can adjust the division
of marital assets if one party is found to have squandered or given away
marital assets during the marriage.
Marital asset dissipation occurs when one spouse has previously
consumed, given away or otherwise transferred, mismanaged, converted, or
otherwise adversely affected property that, had it been before the
court, would have been subject to equitable distribution. This
commonly takes the form of spending marital funds for lovers,
transferring money to family members or other third parties, gambling,
drinking, or other indiscriminate spending.
When making a dissipation claim, a spouse need
only prove that the expenditure was made at or during the time of the
marriage breakdown or was spent for a non-marital purpose during the
marriage. Once this has been established, it is the burden of the other
spouse to prove the funds were spent on a legitimate purpose. If the
court finds that dissipation has occurred, it will appropriately adjust
its division of property to offset the dissipation.
In Colorado, of course, there is an automatic
injunction, included in the standard wording for the petition for
marital dissolution, which prohibits either party from transferring,
encumbering, concealing, selling or otherwise disposing of marital
property.
Cases in Colorado related to dissipation of assets include: In re
Marriage of
Jorgenson (Colo. App. 2006); In re Marriage of Campbell
(Colo. App. 2006), In re Marriage of Casias, 962 P.2d 999 (Colo. App.
1998); In re Marriage of Hunt, 909 P.2d 525 (Colo. 1995); In re Marriage
of Lockwood, 971 P.2d 264 (Colo. App. 1998). If marital assets have been
dissipated by a party, those assets must be valued as of the last date
they existed as marital property. In re Marriage of Martinez, 77 P.3d
827 (Colo. App. 2003); In re Marriage of Lockwood, supra; In re Marriage
of Finer, 920 P.2d 325 (Colo. App. 1996).
The accountant's role can be to assist the
attorneys in either proving or disproving the dissipation by reviewing
the records and reporting on findings. |
