The Final Hearing

This guide is for informational purposes only and is not legal advice. For advice about your specific situation, consult a licensed Colorado attorney.

Your Situation

The final hearing — often called the "permanent orders hearing" — is the last major step in a Colorado divorce. It's the moment where everything you've worked through gets turned into binding court orders: how your property and debts are divided, whether anyone pays spousal support (maintenance), and, if you have children, how parenting time and child support will work. When the court signs the decree, you are legally divorced.

How this final step unfolds depends almost entirely on one thing: whether you and your spouse agree. If you've reached a full agreement, the final hearing is often short — sometimes it can even be handled on paper without anyone appearing. If you disagree on some or all issues, you'll have a contested hearing where you present evidence and the judge decides. This guide walks you through both paths: what the law requires, what Colorado judges actually do, how to prepare, and what the decree means once it's entered.

What the Law Requires

A Colorado divorce decree becomes final the moment the court enters it, subject to your right to appeal. Importantly, if someone appeals but doesn't challenge the finding that the marriage is irretrievably broken, the part of the decree ending the marriage stays final — meaning a person can remarry even while an appeal of other issues is pending.

Before the court can enter a decree, it must make formal findings — including confirming it has jurisdiction over the parties. Jurisdiction is established either because you filed jointly or because the other party was properly served with the summons. Without those findings, the decree cannot be entered. The court must also consider and resolve parenting, child support, maintenance, and property division as part of entering the decree.

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You do not always need to stand in front of a judge: Colorado allows the court to enter final orders on a sworn affidavit, without a hearing, when there's no genuine factual dispute and either there's no marital property or you've agreed how to divide it.

A few important limits on the affidavit path: filing one does not shorten the mandatory waiting period before a decree can be entered, and the court is never required to accept your affidavits — a judge can decide on their own to hold a formal hearing on any or all issues. When both parties agree on everything, you can file a non-appearance affidavit so the decree is entered without a live hearing.

Either party, or the court itself, can request an evidentiary hearing — conducted under the rules of evidence — to resolve disputed questions of fact or law. Only a judge or magistrate can decide those disputes or enter orders, and you must be given notice of the hearing.

Two situations worth knowing: First, if a spouse dies before the decree is entered, the court loses the power to divorce them — the case ends entirely and no valid decree can result. Second, the court can separate (bifurcate) the act of granting the divorce from deciding the remaining financial and parenting issues, entering the decree now and deferring permanent orders to a later date — but only when it finds a compelling reason and that doing so serves the parties' best interests. Courts are generally very reluctant to do this.

If your case involves children, hearings about allocation of parental responsibilities get priority scheduling, and a judge — never a jury — decides them. The court can also close a parenting hearing to the public if an open hearing could harm the child's best interests.

What Courts Typically Do

In practice, when you reach a complete agreement, the court's job at the final hearing is to review your Property and Financial Agreement and your Parenting Plan, approve them, and incorporate them directly into the decree — at which point they carry the full force of a court order. If the court needs more time, it issues separate written permanent orders by a date it specifies, and you should track that deadline carefully.

When you don't agree, the hearing becomes contested. Here's how that typically goes: you present your case through your witnesses (direct examination), you question the other side's witnesses (cross-examination), and you submit labeled exhibits. The hearing is your one opportunity to challenge whether a witness is telling the truth, so rebuttal evidence matters. The judge then makes credibility determinations — deciding which witnesses and exhibits are more believable — makes findings of fact, and applies the law. In contested parenting cases, the judge's primary concern is the best interests and safety of the children.

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The court's goal in dividing property is what is equitable (fair) — not necessarily equal — so don't walk in assuming a 50/50 split is automatic.

A decision may come the same day, or it may take a few weeks; either way, written orders are mailed to you. One thing to understand going in: the court's credibility determinations cannot be appealed. How a judge weighs who was believable is final.

Step by Step: What to Do

1. Figure out which path you're on. If you and your spouse agree on everything, you may be able to finish without a contested hearing — possibly even without appearing at all. If you disagree on anything, you're headed for a contested hearing on the unresolved issues.

2. Get your agreements in writing and filed. If you've reached agreement, your Property and Financial Agreement and your Parenting Plan (and any support order) must be filed before the final hearing so the court can approve and incorporate them. The guided wizard on this site will prepare and pre-fill the correct Colorado forms for your situation, including the decree itself.

3. If you qualify, consider finishing on paper. Where there's no genuine factual dispute and property is either nonexistent or already divided by agreement, you can ask the court to enter your decree without an appearance. The guided wizard can prepare the affidavit and proposed decree needed for this route. Remember the waiting period still applies, and the judge may still require a hearing.

4. If your case is contested, file a pretrial statement. When you can't agree on everything, courts typically expect a pretrial statement at least seven days before the hearing, telling the judge what issues remain and your position on each. It generally includes your witness list, exhibit list, copies of your exhibits, and an updated sworn financial statement. If one side has a lawyer, that lawyer usually files for both — send your portions to them about two weeks ahead. The guided wizard can prepare these documents for you.

5. Line up your witnesses and exhibits. Pick witnesses who have facts the judge needs, write out your questions in advance, and review them with each witness. Label your exhibits — numbers if you're the Petitioner, letters if you're the Respondent — and know which witness can speak to each one. Sign and date your exhibit list before filing it.

6. Secure testimony you need. If a witness won't come voluntarily, you can compel attendance with a subpoena. If a key witness can't appear in person, file a request for remote (absentee) testimony well in advance — these must be filed and served before the hearing, the other side gets a few days to object, and you pay the costs of the remote arrangement. Don't wait until the day of the hearing.

7. Prepare your proposals and your notes. Outline what you want for parenting time, child support, health insurance, and property. Write clear notes of what you want to say — court is stressful and the judge won't pause while you collect your thoughts.

8. Pack for the hearing. Bring at least three copies of your key documents (one for you, one for the other party, one for the judge): the petition, summons, proof of service, financial statement, child support worksheet, and proposed final order. Update the court in writing if your address has changed. If the court mails orders, a self-addressed stamped envelope may help — check your court's practice.

9. Arrange childcare. Do not bring your children to the courthouse. Some judges will not proceed if children are present, which means rescheduling and extra cost and delay.

10. At the hearing, present well. Dress neatly, check in with the clerk, and when your case is called, go to the podium and clearly give your name and role. Take the oath, speak clearly, and present events in chronological order. Give copies of any document you reference to the judge, clerk, and the other party. Stay calm — losing your temper damages your credibility. At the close of evidence, give a brief summation tying your evidence to what you're asking the court to order.

11. Watch for your written orders and any deadlines. The decision may come the same day or weeks later. If the court bifurcated or deferred permanent orders, note the deadline by which they must be issued and confirm everything is filed on time.

What Research Shows Can Help

The items available for this guide focus on Colorado law and court procedure rather than social science research, so there isn't specific research-based guidance to share here about final hearings. What the law does make clear is that in any contested parenting matter, the judge's central question is the best interests and safety of the children — so organizing your case around your children's actual needs and your demonstrated involvement in their lives, rather than around conflict with your spouse, is the approach the court is built to reward.

What to Do Today

• Decide whether your case is agreed or contested — this determines everything about how your final hearing will look.
• Start the guided wizard so your decree, agreements, and (if contested) pretrial documents are prepared and pre-filled correctly.
• Gather your core documents — petition, summons, proof of service, financial statement, and child support worksheet — and plan to bring three copies of each.
• Arrange childcare for your hearing date so a last-minute problem doesn't get your hearing canceled.
• Write down the key points you want to tell the judge, so nerves don't cause you to forget them.

Related Issues to Be Aware Of

• Mediation. Before a contested final hearing, a Colorado court may order you to try mediation to help form, modify, or implement a parenting plan — and can allocate the cost between you. Resolving issues in mediation can shrink or eliminate what's left to fight over at the final hearing.

• Attorney fees and court costs. A judge can order one spouse to pay a reasonable share of the other's attorney fees and costs based on the parties' financial resources, and this can be requested throughout the case — not just at the final hearing. If there's a real income gap between you and your spouse, this is worth raising.

• Creating the parenting plan. If you don't fully agree on parenting, the court decides parenting time and decision-making under the best-interests framework, weighing factors like each parent's past involvement, the child's adjustment to home and school, and the child's safety. The evidence you present at the contested hearing should speak directly to these factors.

• Property division. The final hearing is where the court actually divides your marital property and debts — equitably, not necessarily equally, and without regard to marital misconduct. Be ready to show what's separate property (gifts, inheritances, pre-marital assets) versus marital, since property acquired during the marriage is presumed marital no matter whose name is on it.

• Appealing a family court decision. Keep in mind that credibility determinations can't be appealed, and a temporary custody order isn't final enough to appeal either. A dissolution decree can sometimes be made final for appeal purposes even before all permanent orders are entered — but the window and the rules are narrow, so understand what is and isn't reviewable before you count on an appeal.