Arapahoe County ยท 18th Judicial District
Family Law in Greenwood Village
A large share of the Denver Tech Center sits inside Greenwood Village, and Tech Center pay is not a salary. It is a stack of salary, bonus, equity, and deferrals, and every layer divides differently in a divorce.
Greenwood Village is a city of about 15,000 people whose working identity is the Denver Technological Center, the office corridor along I-25 that lies partly in Denver and substantially inside Greenwood Village. That shapes divorce here in a specific way: the marital estate and the support calculation both depend on compensation that arrives as restricted stock units, options, annual bonuses, and deferred plans, not just a monthly paycheck.
Two questions decide most Greenwood Village cases. What part of the equity is marital property to divide? And what counts as income when the support worksheets ask for a monthly number? Neither has an obvious answer, and both reward counsel who has done the tracing before.
U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024 5-year estimates, retrieved 2026-08-24.
Where a Greenwood Village divorce is filed
Greenwood Village is in Arapahoe County. Family cases go to the Arapahoe County District Court at the Arapahoe County Justice Center, 7325 South Potomac Street in Centennial, in the 18th Judicial District, which since January 2025 covers Arapahoe County alone.
One spouse must have been domiciled in Colorado for 91 days before filing under C.R.S. 14-10-106, a separate 91 day waiting period runs before any decree, and venue follows C.R.C.P. 98(c). When there are minor children, Arapahoe County courts routinely order a court approved parenting class under C.R.S. 14-10-123.7. Plan for it early; the certificate is a filing requirement you do not want holding up permanent orders.
The guideline math at Greenwood Village's median income
Run the statewide formulas at Tech Center income and the shape of a Greenwood Village case appears. The illustrative facts: a 12 year marriage, a 70/30 earning split of Greenwood Village's median household income of $149,029, two children, and 215 overnights a year with the lower earning parent.
A caution about that example: it assumes income arrives evenly every month. Tech Center compensation does not. When a large share of pay is bonus and equity, the first fight is what the monthly income number even is, and the answer moves both maintenance and child support before any formula runs.
Both figures come from the engines behind our free maintenance and child support calculators. They are illustrations, not predictions (how these examples are computed). For the full walkthrough of the 2026 child support law, read our attorneys' worked examples.
Dividing equity compensation without leaving money on the table
Unvested RSUs and options are the signature Greenwood Village asset. Colorado treats compensation earned during the marriage as marital property even when it vests later, which means grant dates, vesting schedules, and the reason the equity was granted, past performance or future retention, all matter. Two spouses can hold identical grant paperwork and end up with very different divisions because the tracing differed.
Deferred compensation, employee stock purchase plans, and carried bonus cycles raise the same issue in different clothes: when was the value earned, and what part of it belongs to the marriage? These are document problems before they are argument problems. The account statements, grant agreements, and plan documents decide who is right.
The double counting trap deserves its own warning. Equity divided as property should not also be counted as income for support, or the same dollars get taken twice. Keeping the property ledger and the income ledger separated cleanly is one of the most valuable things counsel does in a Tech Center divorce.
Two school districts, one parenting plan
Greenwood Village addresses fall in either the Cherry Creek School District or Littleton Public Schools depending on location, and the Cherry Creek district itself is headquartered inside the city on South Yosemite Street. When parents separate into two households, which district each address sits in stops being trivia and starts deciding school assignment, calendars, and the logistics of every exchange.
Parenting plans here get built around the actual school calendar, aftercare and activity schedules, and the reality of Tech Center work weeks. A plan that reads well but assumes a nine to five that nobody works fails in its first quarter. We draft for the schedule the family actually keeps, including travel and earnings seasons.
When Tech Center income clears the guideline ceilings
At Greenwood Village's median household income the maintenance formula still applies, as the example above shows. Many Tech Center households, though, clear $240,000 in combined income in a bonus year, and above that line the advisory formula gives way to the statutory factors. Whether a case sits above or below the line can itself be the argument, because it turns on how variable compensation is counted.
Our practice in these cases is to run the numbers both ways, on base salary and on total compensation, so that every negotiation position is priced before anyone takes it.
For the spouse whose career slowed while the Tech Center career grew: that history is not invisible to Colorado law. It is precisely what the maintenance factors exist to weigh, and fee-shifting under C.R.S. 14-10-119 means the working spouse's lawyer is never the only lawyer in the room.
Questions we hear
Greenwood Village family law FAQ
What happens to the house and accounts while the case is pending?
Once a dissolution is filed and served, an automatic injunction under C.R.S. 14-10-107 restrains both spouses from transferring or concealing marital assets outside the ordinary course, among other protections. Tech Center households should also map vesting dates early, because the injunction does not pause a vesting schedule.
Are my unvested RSUs part of the marital estate?
Often, in part. Colorado looks at when the compensation was earned, not just when it vests. Equity granted for work performed during the marriage is generally marital even if it vests after the decree, while grants tied to future retention may be treated differently. The grant documents control, so gather them early.
What income number goes into support when most of my pay is bonus and equity?
Colorado support calculations use gross income from all sources, and courts commonly average variable compensation over a representative period rather than taking one good or bad year. How the average is built moves the result, which is why both sides fight over it.
My spouse and I both work at the Tech Center. Does that simplify things?
It changes them. Two professional incomes usually shrink or eliminate maintenance, and the child support math becomes sensitive to the parenting schedule. It also doubles the equity compensation questions, since both estates need tracing.
Which school district will our children be in after we separate?
It depends on each new address. Greenwood Village is split between Cherry Creek Schools and Littleton Public Schools, so two homes a mile apart can sit in different districts. If keeping the current school matters, we build that into the parenting plan rather than leaving it to enrollment rules.
These answers are general information about Colorado law, not legal advice about your situation. For advice you can rely on, talk with an attorney about the specifics of your case.
Counsel that reads the grant agreements
Fortress Family Law serves Greenwood Village from one Denver metro office, at the courthouse that actually hears Village cases. What we bring to the Tech Center is the part these cases turn on: the tracing, the income analysis, and the discipline to keep both ledgers straight.
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