SB 25-116: Spousal Maintenance Guidelines - Colorado

Revised (04/23/2025) → PA1 (04/10/2025) · 2 edits

MINOR

This bill was amended to expand the definition of financial abuse in domestic violence cases by adding eight specific types of financial exploitation, including stealing resources, preventing access to money, and exploiting powers of attorney. The changes aim to better protect victims by ensuring courts recognize a broader range of financial control tactics as forms of domestic violence.

Scope change

The bill's scope was expanded to include more specific financial abuse behaviors that were previously not explicitly listed.

DEFINITION

Added eight new categories of financial abuse behaviors including stealing economic resources, using credit without authorization, preventing attendance at school or employment, exploiting resources for personal gain, withholding necessities like food and shelter, causing financial dependency, exerting undue influence over financial decisions, and threatening to expose immigration status.

REQUIREMENT

Modified the disclosure requirements for domestic violence restraining orders to include these newly defined financial abuse behaviors in court filings.

Rerevised (04/25/2025) → Revised (04/23/2025) · 1 edit

MINOR

The bill adds a new definition for 'Economic Abuse' to the legislative text, expanding the scope of domestic violence protections to include coercive behaviors that control financial resources.

Scope change

The bill's scope expanded to explicitly define economic abuse as a form of domestic violence, broadening eligibility for protections under the law.

DEFINITION

Added a new subsection (c) defining 'Economic Abuse' as coercive, deceptive, or manipulative behavior that controls a person's ability to access money, assets, credit, or financial information.

Final Act (05/02/2025) → Rerevised (04/25/2025) · 4 edits

MODERATE

The bill was reorganized from a final act format to a revised draft version with updated legislative history and formatting. The substantive policy content regarding spousal maintenance guidelines for domestic violence victims remains consistent between versions, with no changes to the core provisions. The main differences are structural formatting, bill summary placement, and the addition of reading dates and committee assignments.

Scope change

No substantive change to the bill's scope or applicability; only formatting and presentation updates.

TECHNICAL

Replaced final act signature language with revised draft header including session information and reading dates.

Added bill summary section explaining the bill's purpose and current law requirements.

Reorganized bill structure to include Senate and House committee assignments and reading history.

Updated page numbering and formatting to reflect current legislative process status.

Engrossed (04/11/2025) → Reengrossed (04/14/2025) · 3 edits · Apr 14, 2025

MINOR

The bill was reengrossed to include additional sponsors and updated the legislative status to reflect third reading amendments. The most significant substantive change is the removal of provisions related to financial exploitation and undue influence over a person's financial behavior, which were previously included in the definition of abuse or neglect.

Scope change

The bill's scope was narrowed by removing specific financial abuse provisions that previously covered exploitation of resources, withholding necessities like food or shelter, and exerting undue influence over financial decisions.

DEFINITION

Removed clauses defining financial exploitation, including exploitation of resources, withholding necessities like food or shelter, and causing financial dependency through control of resources.

Removed provisions regarding undue influence over a person's financial behavior or decisions, including forcing default on joint obligations.

TECHNICAL

Added additional co-sponsors to the Senate sponsorship list and updated the document header to reflect the reengrossed status with third reading amendments.

Introduced (02/04/2025) → Engrossed (04/11/2025) · 4 edits · Apr 14, 2025

MODERATE

This bill expands how Colorado courts consider abuse history when determining spousal maintenance (alimony) in divorce cases. Previously, courts could only consider protection orders from the last five years, but now they can review any prior abuse history including coercive control, economic abuse, and other forms of abuse beyond just domestic violence.

Scope change

The bill broadens the scope from only considering mandatory protection orders to include a wider range of abuse types and extends the time period for reviewing abuse history in spousal maintenance determinations.

ELIGIBILITY

Changed the time period for considering prior protection orders from five years to two years before filing divorce or legal separation petitions

DEFINITION

Added new definitions for 'coercive control', 'domestic violence', and 'economic abuse' to provide clarity on what behaviors courts can consider

REQUIREMENT

Added eight specific examples of economic abuse behaviors including restricting access to money, stealing resources, using credit without authorization, and withholding necessities like food and shelter

Expanded what courts can consider when determining spousal maintenance to include various forms of abuse beyond just domestic violence, such as coercive control, economic abuse, and litigation abuse

Spousal Maintenance Guidelines

What changed between versions

How they voted

Actions timeline

Sponsors